DA: After the Fire
by Darwin
Summary: Max is back in Logan's life after four years of separation, but will it be more than their relationship can handle? Sequel to Kito's Story. PLS R&R! 4 of "Projections"
1. Goodbye and Hello

After the Fire

Dark Angel is the property of 20th Century Fox, James Cameron and Chris Eglee.

The year is 2031. This story takes place immediately after X-10: Kito's Story.

******This is a sanitized (Slightly mind you) version of a previously posted Story I did. It was removed because of the NC-17 rating that made it a target of FF.net restructuring. The Dark Angel series I have written did not seem complete without having "After the Fire" Available to read! So here it is again. For those of you who have read it before welcome back, for those who have not welcome, please read and review (Would begging help?)

This was my first delving into SML (Sweet Monkey Love, for the uninitiated, a term that was coined on the DA official web site by a couple of my friends, the authors of Dangerous Games, and there after stolen by the show with only a slight modification to the terms!), and was very hard for me to write (At least the ahem, lovemaking scenes) If you like what is here and want to peruse an uncut version you can get my email address from my profile.

Thanks for reading!!!

Darwin

Prologue: Goodbye and Hello

It was early afternoon when the Logan Cale Brigade finally decided to break up and go their separate ways. It had been a long couple of days, but extremely rewarding to Logan's mind, he smiled despite his exhaustion, after four long heartbroken years he had Max back. Getting into and out of the Manticore stronghold had been the toughest thing that he had ever been through. He grimaced ruefully, regretting his failed second attempt at revenge against Lydecker, then he shrugged inwardly, but he still had Max back. He preceded his teammates out to the door opening it for them as they moved past.

Zach came first, looking Logan directly in the eyes as he shook his hand, "Well I'm glad it all worked out."

"I appreciate the help Zach, I can't thank you enough," Logan said sincerely.

Zach nodded his mouth thin, "Take care of her," He said sighing and then moved out the door.

Logan smiled as Tinga turned to face him, she reached up and wrapped her arms around his neck. Logan leaned into it hugging her fiercely in return, "Thank you Tinga, I think you're the only reason I've stayed sane the last four years."

She let go of him smiling as she looked into his eyes, "If you ever need my help again, contact me. Pass that hug on to Max… tell her I say 'Hi'."

Logan nodded smiling again, "I will."

Next came Tima, Logan had to look down at her. She practically jumped on him hugging him so hard that it actually hurt his over tired and overworked body, "I am so happy for you," she said enthusiastically, and when she leaned back again she was crying. She definitely did not have Max's emotional control.

"Thank you Tima," Logan said softly, "I owe you more than I could ever repay," he smiled again feeling a bit teary eyed himself, "You helped give me my life back."

Her smile at him could have lit the night, "Anytime Logan," She actually managed to say in a voice that was both ecstatic and melancholy at the same time, if that was possible. She looked as if she was about to lose a friend despite her happy tone. Logan could tell that she was afraid that she would be excluded from his life now that Max was back.

To ease her fear he said, "How would you feel about coming by next Saturday for lunch? I'm sure Max will want to meet you." She smiled again nodding enthusiastically and practically bounced out the door and into the waiting elevator.

Kito stopped solemnly in front of Logan, "You're invited too Kito," Logan said sincerely, "It was your info that made all this happen, I'm sure Max will want to personally thank you."

Kito looked down at his feet nodding, "I'll consider it," he said his mouth thin.

"You going to be alright?" Logan asked seeing the stress in his face. He knew this world was something totally new to him, Kito must be feeling very lost at the moment, he'd spent his whole life as a soldier, sixteen years, and he was still not used to the idea of having to make all the decisions himself.

"I'm not sure," He answered both Logan and himself honestly.

"I got Tima hooked up, if you need it I can see what I can do for you."

"Thanks," He said quietly, obviously uncomfortable, "I'll do that." He turned away from Logan and strode to the elevator. 

Logan stood leaning on the doorframe watching until they all waved and the doors closed. He slowly turned around shutting the door quietly behind him moving back toward the bedroom. All of that and Max still had not waken up. He had never known her to sleep much, that she was said that she must have been thoroughly beat down. 

Just how far had Lydecker gone? Kito had hinted that it was serious, physical abuse, possibly sexual abuse? He felt his temper rise at the thought of Lydecker treating Max in that manner. He felt his muscles bunch up further and his face get hot, he forced himself to take a deep breath to calm down. He could not… he would not, bring that subject up to her as much as he wanted to know what exactly had happened the four years she was stuck in that facility under Lydecker's "Care". That was something they could discuss when the memories had dulled a little. By the time he reached the bedroom he had resumed a cautious caring attitude toward Max.

He was slightly worried about her and walked in to find her in a rumple of sheets on her stomach, her back bare. Her skin was smooth and dark, even after all her years in the dark room where she had been kept from the prying eyes of everyone. He frowned seeing the slight puckers that marred that smooth beauty. His memory flashed back remembering all too clearly even after all the years between the incident that had given her those scars. He swallowed hard closing his eyes against the tears that threatened trying desperately to beat down the ugly images that surged up in his head. That was the past. 

Max was breathing evenly and for a moment all he could do was watch her, still not quite believing this was real. His heart compressed as another feeling rose up inside him, yearning. His loins responded to the sight of her an aching need that he had forgone these four years. Plenty of opportunities had presented themselves that was for certain, but he never could avail himself of it. Always the guilt had driven him from even getting involved in that way with anyone. He had never been able to let go of Max. He made himself breathe, as the urge to wake her grew stronger, telling himself it was too soon, that she needed her rest, and that they had all the time in the world now.

Logan moved over to her side of the bed, which had become the middle since he had risen several hours ago and crouched down next to her smiling in wonder at her face. It was peaceful in sleep and he didn't even notice the ugly bruises marring her features, he raised a hand and moved a stray black hair out of her face. Sighing he stood again, still not comfortable with disturbing her much needed sleep. Even if she was awake he was unsure his sore body was up to satisfying his desire. He decided instead to take the hot bath he had promised himself upon the departure of his impromptu rescue team. He quietly slipped back out of the bedroom and moved down the hall to the guest bath, grunting as he leaned down to start the water into the tub. He slowly undressed his thoughts a jumble of the rescue and the future and the past all in a wash of images that blurred and mingled until none was clear. 

He tried to stop thinking of anything as he eased himself into the near unbearably hot water sighing as soon as his skin stopped itching. He closed his eyes as his bundled and bruised muscles began to loosen in the therapeutic heat. He lay there long moments just enjoying the warmth and the chance to relax.

"It's good to know you kept yourself in shape," A voice said and Logan started sitting up slightly and quickly looking up to find Max standing just inside the door of the bathroom. He must have fallen asleep.

"Hey," Logan said automatically smiling warmly. 

Max wasn't wearing a thing and Logan could no more help look her bare body up and down than he could stop breathing. Her dark hair was longer than he remembered it falling nearly to her breasts in wavy curls. Her dark eyes were haunted looking, she was not yet fully rested but there was a hint of playfulness there that he remembered all too well. The swelling in her face was still dark and ugly, but he could see that it was already well on its way to healing. His eyes moved down her long neck and her still muscular shoulders and arms lingering for a moment on her breasts still pert, firm, and full. They continued to move down taking in her slim waist, wide well proportioned hips, and her long well defined legs met. The other reaction he couldn't help was his own physical response to the sight, it was almost painful how quickly his body reacted. Her eyebrow raised knowingly.

"How you feeling?" He asked her softly, ignoring the feeling a moment longer.

She shrugged, "Like hamburger, y'know jumbled up, ground down, and pounded flat."

"That good huh?" He smiled crookedly nodding, he leaned his head back against the wall, "Feeling about the same myself," He smiled warmly at her, looking out the corner of his eye and reaching out a hand, "Care to join me?"

"A hot bath…" she said one corner of her mouth quirking up, "You just don't know how long I've been wishing for one of those," his smile became even wider as she stepped over to him taking his outstretched hand and lowered herself into the tub facing away from him. She leaned back against him, sighing blissfully as she settled into the water, as Logan wrapped both arms around her chest as he kissed her above the ear.

"I missed you," He whispered emotionally.

She turned her head smiling at him, "Me too."

His arms tightened about her reactively as he remembered again about how he had thought all this time that he had lost her forever. He was still waiting to wake up from this dream, waiting to find himself alone just as he had been three days ago. He made himself relax his hold, instead raising one hand and moving her hair away he leaned down and kissed her neck. Max obliged him by tilting her head away from him allowing better access. Gooseflesh raised on Max's skin reacting to the light electric touch of Logan's lips on her skin. He backed away a moment seeing the barcode, seeing the scar where she had nearly killed herself with the Red Series Implant, brushing light fingertips over each, frowning slightly at the remembrance of that day. They both were a part of her, and he accepted that. He resumed kissing her neck moving down into the crook where her neck and shoulder met feeling her shiver with delight.

Max ran one hand down the outside of his right thigh and back up the inside of it feeling the reaction in Logan's body in the way it tensed under. Teasing him she moved her hand away, moving it instead up his body and then through his hair. She twisted her body so that she could kiss him on the lips. He was breathing heavy now and she found that she was as well.

They both stopped a moment just staring into each other's eyes longingly, "Are you up to this?" Logan asked huskily, clearly concerned.

She nodded licking her lips, "Are you?"

"Try and stop me," He said smiling again, suddenly his body didn't hurt at all.

"Why would I do that?" she teased.

Logan's hands found their way to Max's chest again, his hands re-familiarizing themselves with her features. Their kisses became deeper, more passionate and Logan's hands moved again, slowly moving over her body light fingertips traced from her chin down her arched neck, lower over her body touching those sensitive spots he remembered even after four years. Logan traced over her taut stomach and over to the curve of her hip. 

It wasn't long until she was squirming on top of him in ecstasy. She pulled away from him a moment standing, and Logan thought for just a moment that he had overstepped her willingness to fill the void that they both had been living with for the past four years. His judgement was premature She looked over her shoulder at him with bedroom eyes as she slowly sensuously turned to face him. Logan raised his hands settling them on her thighs. She bent her knees and began to settle onto him and he ran his hands over her dark skin as she did, feeling her shiver under his touch. 

Max leaned down to kiss Logan hands on his cheeks as she slowly moved on top of him. He pulled her against him moving his hands slowly up her back. Passion swelled as the moments went by and it was not long before Max collapsed on top of Logan's chest, both of them breathing heavy, and both of them content. They remained there for long moments neither able nor willing to move.

Slowly she pushed herself back upright looking down into his eyes her face brimming with relief and her love for him shone brightly.

Logan smiled again, "Welcome home," He said softly pulling her back down into a long and loving kiss.


	2. Ghosts of the Past

Hey there, me again. These installments will be coming fairly rapidly seems how the whole story has already been written… and just needs a bit of editing to pass the new standards! I hope that this will tide you over until I get my head together about B&P's next chapter!

Darwin

Chapter One: Ghosts of the Past

Once Logan and Max cleaned up they both returned to bed as their latent weariness overwhelmed them. It was several hours later when Max woke up with a start. She blinked heavily, trying to remember what had wakened her, for the life of her she could not recall what had been so frightening. Slowly she sat up looking around her having momentarily forgotten where she was. She couldn't help but smile as she realized she was home. She looked down next to her finding Logan still sleeping flat on his back with his arms over his head.

She slowly took the sight of him in. His hair was graying out, it was more peppered than she remembered it being. It was cropped short in the back and longer on top standing up at every angle always looking as if he had just gotten out of bed. His face seemed thinner but he still sported the same scruffy beard also starting to pepper at the corners of his mouth, she couldn't remember him ever wearing it different in all the time that she had known him. 

Max looked slowly over the features of his body. She wasn't kidding when she said that he was in shape, he had more definition than she remembered in him. He had always had a nice body, but not nearly as well defined as it was now. His arms were always muscular but now they were cut, so were his chest and his stomach. Her gaze continued down smiling in amusement at the tangle of covers that barely covered him, he must have been hot for his left leg was exposed to the open air. Her smile faded away as something on his leg grabbed her attention. There on his left thigh was an ugly scar that was about four inches in diameter, it was roughly circular, the skin looked thick and smooth. She reached over slowly running light fingers over the scar tissue, wondering for a moment what had happened.

Logan stirred slightly mumbling something incomprehensible in his sleep, she looked at his face then back at the scar. Her breath caught in her throat as the memory surfaced the alley… four years ago he had been shot in the leg during their escape attempt. Just before, she swallowed, just before she herself had been taken. Her brows furrowed as she looked back at it again, but why did it look so bad? 

She had her own scars from that night, three neat bullet wounds in her back, but hers were not nearly so large or ugly as this. Manticore had done an outstanding job patching her back together… all so they could get her child, a child that they had hoped would have been just like Tinga's. Max the transgenic brood-mare, she winced inwardly at the part of her that actually felt glad that she had miscarried and kept Manticore from having another experiment to work on. A pang hit her then, regret, loss, anger, they all melded together until she was shaking. 

She focused her eyes on him yet again, wanting to wake, tell him, to release the pain in her soul, and tell him all the horror she had lived in the last four years. That same part of her that had been glad for the miscarriage blamed Logan for not trying to find her sooner. She frowned at that thought and it slipped away quickly, he had thought her dead, her body taken by Manticore for genetic research and development. There had been no one to tell him that she had recovered only to be a prisoner for four years. It was the same for her, she thought he had been killed, one more witness to an illicit Manticore mission, and expendable. 

She looked unfocused at the wall across the way, wondering silently how she had managed to last as long as she did when she had nothing to live for. She snorted, knowing the answer to that question even before it had run through her head, she was born and bred to be a survivor… Damn it to hell. But it was over, at least for the moment.

She looked down at his scarred leg yet again and ran a hand back over it thinking, "What happened to you after I was gone?"

Max looked back at Logan's face as his mutterings grew louder and he began thrashing in his sleep. He was nearly panting he was breathing so heavy and he had broken out into a sweat. She was about to wake him, worried about the violence of his motions. But before she knew what had happened he had bolted upright almost doubling over, "HUAH!" Burst from his lips sounding like a cross between frightened grunt and a scream.

Logan's left hand clenched over hers and painfully was pressing her hand into the scarred flesh on his leg. He wasn't looking at her at first staring across the room his chest heaving, there was pain on his face. Logan leaned further forward his forehead nearly touching the sheets, and there he remained for long moments with no movement except the heavy shaking of his body. Max actually thought she heard a sob escape his lips. He slowly straightened to a sitting position and raised a shaky hand covering his tightly closed eyes as he tried to take a deep breath. After a moment he settled and she convinced herself that she had imagined that supposed emotional weakness. Slowly his hand moved again as he raised it to run through his hair.

Max was unable to hold back her pain anymore the pressure of his grip had increased on her fingers until she thought that they were about to snap. She'd forgotten just how strong he was now, and it reminded her of how extraordinary he was, just like her. She let out a small cry of pain, and Logan's previously unfocused gaze was suddenly on her as if he hadn't realized she was there. His confused face looked at her and then down at her hand, "Jesus," he said quickly releasing her hand. She drew her hand back quickly rubbing them to return circulation to them, "Are you alright?"

Max could only nod, "Are _you_ alright?" She asked, concern and fright bleeding through into her voice.

He looked away from her suddenly swinging his legs over the edge of the bed and standing up. The sheets fell into a rumpled heap on the floor at his feet. He moved quickly to the bathroom, and Max watched the pronounced limp in his step from that damaged leg, something she had not noticed before now. He disappeared quickly not answering her question or offering her an explanation. Max stared after him for long moments then shook her head deciding she was not going to let this one go. There was something that she was missing and she wanted the details. She moved out of the bed more slowly following his path to the lavatory. She stopped at the doorway watching him, he was leaned on the freestanding sink his head hanging between his shoulders. She leaned on the frame crossing her arms over her chest, "So does Mrs. Logan Cale get to know the details of what exactly happened after the Manticore monsters took her away from him?" she said in a flat voice.

He jumped at the sound of her voice his head coming up sharply. More slowly he straightened and turned back toward her, "No…" he said quietly, brushing past her with a towel in hand. She followed close on his heels still not willing to let the issue go. She sat on the bed near him as he gathered together his clothes for the day, staring at him with the look that usually guilt-tripped him into almost any confession. It didn't work this time, Logan didn't even look at her as he pulled on his pants and then he left for the front of the apartment.

Max sighed heavily closing her eyes and shaking her head, something was wrong. What ever had happened after she had been taken to Manticore it had been very painful for him and he was not nearly ready to talk to her about it. This time she let him be, he would tell her eventually, he always did. Pushing him would only make him shell up further, and that was not the way to start their first week back in each other's arms. 

She instead slowly dressed herself, happy to find that Logan had kept her things. He had even left them in the dresser, though she would have expected that he would have at least packed them into boxes and put them in storage. She looked down at herself noticing that her already small frame had gotten smaller with her captivity, her clothes were now loose on her. She frowned unhappy with the way here and there her bones showed where they never had before. She was always too stuporous, and too uncaring to notice that before. She was going to have to fix that.

When Max finished dressing she moved back toward the living room trying to tell herself that she was not looking for Logan. She was just checking the place out to see how much it had changed… it hadn't, everything was pretty much the same as she had seen it last, minus an item or two that he probably had to sell to make ends meet. As she finished looking through the place she was unhappy to find that Logan was not about. Max knew he hadn't left she would have heard that. Max shrugged moving to kitchen to find something to eat. She realized that she was starving and tried vainly to remember when the last time was that she had eaten. 

She opened the icebox pulling out some lunchmeat and bread, lettuce, tomatoes and the condiments. She moved over to the island in the kitchen, setting every thing down. She began to fix herself several sandwiches. She happened to look up and out the window, her brows furrowing as she found Logan out on the balcony looking out over the tower district toward the water. The sun was beginning to set outside making his lone form no more than a halloed silhouette against the bright orange sky. She continued to fix her meal, now and again glancing up at him, confused, he had never been comfortable with heights, in all the time that she had known him, yet there he was two feet from a 35 story drop. She separated the sandwiches onto two different plates and headed for where her husband stood looking forlorn. 

Max silently approached Logan pausing just a few feet from him watching him, she could see that his thoughts were not on the view by the dour set of his mouth and the far away look in his eyes. Taking a deep breath she sidled up to him and slipped the plate up under his nose, "No longer afraid of heights I see."

He jumped again looking down a moment and then back up at her stepping back away from the railing. He smiled thinly, as if he didn't feel like it, and took the proffered sandwich from her, "Thanks," he said quietly moving toward a small patio set nearer the entrance and sitting down. Max followed him over as he shrugged, "A lot can change in four years," he said softly.

Her mouth thinned and she nodded taking a bite of her sandwich. He had picked up his sandwich but didn't take a bite and after a moment he set it back down just staring at her. Max tried to ignore it at first concentrating on getting the beast in her stomach to stop talking to her. Finally she set her own sandwich down looking back at him trying to decide what exactly he was thinking, she failed utterly, "What's wrong?" She asked him, knowing this had something to do with his sudden withdrawal upon rising, something to do with the nightmare and the scar.

"How's your hand?" he said evasively.

Max looked down at her fingers, "'s alright," She responded shrugging.

"I'm sorry," He said sincerely, "I didn't mean to hurt you…It was…"

"A bad nightmare, Logan I understand."

"I wonder if you really do," He looked away a moment his own mouth thin, then he looked back at her, "I missed you," He said.

"You said that already," She chided him smiling, She picked up her sandwich again taking another bite.

He took a deep breath nodding, "I know… It's just… I…" He shook his head his brows furrowed, "When I thought I lost you, I went crazy… literally," Max stopped halfway through chewing her food, setting her sandwich down yet again. She watched as Logan twisted the wedding ring on his finger, "I stopped caring, about my health, my appearance, my life. I almost ended it two weeks after the incident in the alley. If Zach hadn't interrupted me…" He shrugged his eyes absent, "I wouldn't be here now," she watched as his eyes focused on her, they were glossy with pending tears, "Zach offered me an alternative… and it was not necessarily a better one. He offered me revenge for what Lydecker had done to you, and I took him up on the offer… gladly. I had every intention of taking out Lydecker and dying in the process," Max's eyes widened, "And with that driving me Zach and I went to rescue Tinga, her family, and several other of the X-5's in California. But I still didn't care… The only thing keeping me going was the thought of revenge. After the mission was complete I went after Lydecker on my own, knowing I was going to die in the process. I came to my senses only when I was actually faced with death at the hands of two young Manticore soldiers."

Max looked astonished, "_You_ took on two Manticore Kids?"

He smiled crookedly almost seeming embarrassed by it, "Yeah… I did," Then he sobered again, "By the time that I had realized my whole pattern of thinking had been skewed by my grief, the neglect had taken its toll on my leg. An infection had set in, something I ignored all signs of to that point. All of that and I found myself in Lydecker's hands. He used that against me, adding pressure to the wound, trying to get me to talk," he looked away out over the city again, then he blinked returning his attention to her, "I was reliving that moment when I woke this evening. Seeing him standing over me steadily increasing the pain, and there was nothing I could do about it, bound to a pole and weak with blood loss and infection."

Max nodded slowly looking slightly sick at the thought, "D… did he know it was you? I mean after the alley…"

"No, not at the time," He spread his hands she looked down at them seeing the shaking that was there, "Zach and Tinga came to my rescue, but I had already managed to free myself, using their distraction to get out of my bonds. I was hurting, barely conscious, and hardly able to maintain my feet. I met the three of them coming in, Lydecker herded before Tinga and Zach," He laughed shortly, "I broke Lydecker's jaw. I was this close to killing him," He held up his thumb and forefinger, "I had the gun on his temple, one shot and it would have been done. But… I chose to save Zach first from a soldier that had a bead on him, and before I could re-aim… I lost it, loss consciousness," He slammed a hand angrily onto the table, suddenly agitated, "Twice now I've been presented that opportunity, and twice I didn't take advantage of it."

"What, not taking tactical advantage over your enemy? He'd be so disappointed if he knew," Max said pointedly.

Logan smiled hearing his own words coming out of her mouth, he quieted again pursing his lips, "The funny thing is, if I had… killed him back then, it would have been the biggest mistake of my life," he reached a hand across the table toward her. Max took his hand smiling as he said, "I would never have found you."


	3. After the Fire

Chapter Two: After the Fire…

Logan looked back down at his hands as he continued telling her about the events that happened in her absence, "I spent the better part of three weeks in a small backwater Oregon Town trying to recover from the gangrene that had set in on my leg. I was very lucky in the fact that I they did not have to amputate the damn thing. The doctor had to cut out a lot of the tissue in order to save it at all. I never recovered full use of it, I still limp and it still aches from time to time," he smiled ruefully this time, "Like now… I think I overdid it when we came after you. It's not like it's every day that I storm a Manticore installation, turned out to be more exercise than this aging body can handle."

Logan refocused on telling his story, "After I returned from Oregon, I vowed never to use my talent for fighting again, I knew the cost had been too high already for me. Added to the fact that I am not what I would consider super-soldier material. Despite what I was able to do to rescue you I still am not comfortable with it." 

He looked down again his face pinching a bit, "Tinga came to visit many times after that, mostly to see how I was doing… guess she felt like a kindred spirit after losing her husband and son like she did." Logan looked up at Max, adding, "I found out later that they never made it to the rendezvous point after leaving Yreka, neither did the other two X-5's. She still doesn't know what happened to them… You wouldn't have heard anything about them?"

Max looked down, her own pain crossing her face, "No," she said almost inaudibly, "They kept me pretty well isolated from everyone and everything."

Logan stopped realizing that he was inadvertently pushing her, "Damn it, Logan, let her be about it," he thought to himself angrily. He said instead, "Everything settled down after that, I went back to work finally straightening my head out about everything, forcing myself in some cases to continue living. Soon things returned to relative normal, there was still a hole there without you but I made myself press on. In a way the experience in Yreka strengthened my character. 

"Eventually Tinga moved on getting a lead that she thought might pan out about her family. She remained in touch but I hadn't seen her for a year before she came to help us."

He resumed his track as he said, "And all was calm until about three months ago," Max's eyes raised above her brows and Logan continued, "That was when I ran into Tima, or rather she ran into me. It seems she was set up on me, as a mark… she had been living her life alone, since she was abandoned by Manticore at five years old. She fell into pretty much the same line of business as you to stay alive and I was supposed to be her next victim. She made her move while sharing the elevator on the way up here, and I surprised her when I showed I wasn't such an easy mark after all. You'd have been proud of me, I pinned her in like ten seconds. But she got away from me, my inexperience ended up aiding her to escape.

"I had thought that she was another Manticore agent sent after me, that they had figured out just who and what I was. It had been a fear of mine since California, because I was sure that eventually Lydecker would realize just who I had been. And realizing it he would come to the conclusion that you somehow had affected me. I mean after the alley, and after spending who knows how much time secured to that pole in his tent, as much as I despise him I realize that he is not a stupid man.

"When Tima came back a second time I had convinced myself that it was true. I was shocked when she told me that she had not come after me on assignment from Manticore, she was just trying to support herself. 

"She, as it turned out was obsessed with going back, feeling that Manticore was where she had belonged. I tried to convince her otherwise, but despite my explanations and warnings she was convinced that it was best if she were to go back. Despite my reservations I helped her by rooting out the nearest installation and driving her out there. She wanted me to escort her in, but I didn't want to ruin her chance to get reintroduced to the program by exacting vengeance the moment Lydecker showed, so I watched from the fence as she was surrounded by troops. 

"True to his form he tried to kill her stating that she was too tainted by the outside world to be of any use to him, no matter her willingness to return. I had to save her, using the abilities that I had forsaken to get her out of harms way," He shrugged, "Her and I became friends after that, though it took her a long time to stop blaming me for taking her out of there. I think that she began to see me as a father figure after a while," He laughed, "Now I really feel old." 

"I learned something else on that little excursion, I learned that I liked what I was able to do, and I found myself willing to improve that woefully undeveloped skill. So with Tima's help I began to practice what you had given me," He sighed looking down, "I figured that it was the best way to keep your memory alive.

"One day out of the blue, Tima came to me with a story about a fellow X-10 who had found her place. He claimed that he had been forced to escape the installation after finding an older Manticore locked away in a supposed abandoned building on base. Lydecker had discovered him there and ordered him captured. It was exactly four years to the day after your disappearance, and I refused to believe her. The coincidence was too great, it smelled and sounded to me like a trap. Something Lydecker would easily think up to get me into a cage. Tima insisted I talk to this Kito myself and make a more educated decision.

"So I went to talk to the young man. And he somehow convinced me, that he had seen you and that he had been on the run for real. And you pretty much know the rest, we came for you."

He went silent for long moments as if he was spent from his telling of the past. He finally slowly picked up his sandwich and began eating watching her with small unobtrusive glances. She picked up her own sandwich and took another bite, suddenly finding that she was not hungry, chewing mechanically as a thought rose up insider her. It chilled her to the marrow.

"In all that time…You never… saw anyone else?" Max interrupted his eating reluctantly, she wasn't sure she wanted the answer. If he had, as much as it would hurt, she told herself that she could not blame him. He had thought she was dead. As he said four years is a long time, and if he knew what had happened at Manticore, would he still want her?

A pain crossed over his face, and he shook his head in the negative. "How could I?" He reached over and gently stroked her face with the back of his hand, "You were the best thing to ever happen to me Max, and I couldn't bear the thought of sullying your memory with another. Even if all the evidence I had pointed to the conclusion that you had been killed."

Max chewed her lip and smiled thinly, as the thought dissipated. She took another bite and neither of them said anything for a long time. It was dark now the lights of the city just now blinking on to provide for the normal folks to see by. The balcony remained dark and Max looked over seeing Logan clearly through the green tinge of her night vision. He looked up at her his own eyes widely dilated to allow the maximum amount of light in. A gift she had given him, and she knew that he was seeing her as clearly as she was seeing him.

They continued to eat in silence, both lost in their own thought, each mulling over what had been said. Logan wondered silently if he should have hit her with so much so soon after her release. He didn't want to drive her away but he did want to make her understand what he had been going through since she had disappeared. He wanted to relay to her just how happy he was to have her back in his life, and just what she meant to him. It had been something that he had not had the chance to do the night he lost her and he wanted to make up for it now.

Max stared out at the night a moment absorbing everything Logan had said. He had had a hard time of it obviously, and she could understand exactly where he was coming from on the subject considering her own treatment the past four years.

She wondered silently when would be the right time to broach the subject of her own four years of their separation, "Never would be good," she thought grimly. He was such an understanding man… more so than any she had ever met. He had taken all her quirks with good nature and patience, even when she had broke down in heat to "bang the gong" with someone else when all she had ever wanted was Logan. It was his whole "The Universe is right on track…" Philosophy. 

"Mine is not to ask why bad things happen, its just a matter of dealing with the consequences," She remembered him saying just three months after they had first met, just after he had lost the use of his legs. He was never really that "wrapped around it" as he always claimed, but he somehow managed to stay on an even keel about it all. Sometimes she wished she were as understanding of the world in which she lived. She shook her head minutely, that was all so long ago… that was before… Before… Tears began to well up in her eyes as the images came back to her, pain, humiliation, anger… they began to bubble through the carefully constructed façade that she had erected for her love.

Max stood abruptly as her emotion overwhelmed her, her half eaten sandwich hitting the plate on one edge sending it flipping off the table to hit the balcony floor and shattering. Logan looked up at her in surprise backing away from his place and starting to ask if she was OK. She wheeled away from him striding quickly into the interior of the apartment covering her tear-streaked eyes.

Logan stood alone on the balcony staring after Max, wondering if he had caused her breakdown. He kicked himself silently, realizing that it had been too much too fast. She wasn't ready for it.


	4. The Rest of the Story

Chapter Three: The Rest of the Story…

Logan stood for long moments just looking at where Max had been standing only a moment before. He was unsure what exactly he should do… he felt responsible for her reaction and wanted to console her and apologize for overwhelming her. Logan was sure she was not going to be receptive to apology right now though, she might just feel that he was trying to placate her or pity her. She had always been loath to that sort of treatment and would probably react badly to it. So there he stood, torn between going after her and giving her some space to work through what was troubling her.

Logan took a deep breath and steeled his courage, realizing that he had to at least console her, he could not avoid her and then he followed her path to the interior of their home. Cautiously he moved through the place searching his distraught wife out. He stopped short as he came to the living room, finding her there, and the sight of her sent a shiver through him. It was a combination of déjà vu and foreboding. She was perched, perfectly balanced on the balls of her feet on the back of the couch staring out the window at the dark night. It was the same spot she had always sat when she was troubled, for as long as they had known each other. The perching tendency came from her turmoil and anxiety, this was bad, very bad, he knew and his thought was only to turn around and leave it for the moment. But his stubbornness moved his feet for him when his conscious mind wanted to "escape and evade" the situation before him. 

Logan stopped just shy of Max's unmoving form looking down at her white knuckled hands. He just stared at her, breathing fast for long moments unwilling to draw attention to himself. Finally he made himself move, raising his arm to rest on her shoulder, she went stiff under his touch, but Logan made himself speak, "I'm sorry Max, I didn't mean to dump all this on you at once."

Max reached up and brushed away his hand like she was flicking lint off her clothes. She said nothing to him as she crossed her arms self protectively over her chest and her head sank onto them. She blinked slowly he could see in her reflection but seemed fixed on some unknown point in the night sky. They were glassy and unfocused, her thoughts turned inward, and Logan looked at the carpet licking his lips nervously and running a hand through his unruly hair.

He didn't see Max blink again, and refocus on his face via the ghostly reflection in the window. Her brows furrowed at the distraught look on his face. He honestly thought he had caused this emotional lapse in her. "How sweet," she thought sardonically. Slowly she unfolded herself pivoting on one foot and stepping off the couch in front of him. She then plopped down on it looking up at him, he was staring now, the apology all but spilling from his lips again at the thought of causing her mental pain. She forced herself to smile at him, even if she still wanted to run and hide away and keep her awful secret to herself, if for nothing else to keep from hurting him.

"It's not you, Logan," she finally croaked, looking away. She felt rather than saw Logan sit next to her, his fingers suddenly stroking her hair lightly. Now how did she start without driving him away? She stood abruptly suddenly uncomfortable with his tenderness, knowing she was about to break his heart. Max moved across from him, forcing herself to sit again, not to run like she had been about to do. 

Not sure how to start she blurted, "I remember being semi conscious on my trip to Manticore seeing Lydecker's face hovering above me through nearly blackened vision. I tried to move tried to lash out at him, but my body had shut down, I couldn't even blink to wet my drying eyes. I knew I was dying, and wondered why he hadn't finished me off. They were doing some kind of preliminary sampling on the trip, probably to see what kind of tissue they could recover from me once they got me back.

"I remember hearing one of the technicians saying that they had picked up a fetal heartbeat," She looked up as Logan's face pinched.

"You don't have to tell me this now," Logan said in a ragged voice, looking at once interested and horrified to hear what she was saying, "It's too soon…"

Max shook her head, "No… I have to get this out, Logan, I need to know I didn't do wrong. I need the assurance that no matter what, that you still love me."

"That's never in question, you know that," Logan assured her, reaching across the gap between them for her hand.

"Let me finish before you answer," Max admonished him, shying back from his proffered hand. Logan sat back raising an eyebrow at the tone of her voice. Taking a deep shaky breath she continued, "Only when they had said that did the IV's and the paddles come out to try and save me, only because of the baby. They were trying to save the incubator to another possible miracle child… Damn them."

Max continued talking as her thoughts slipped back to that horrific time in her life, unable to stop her words even if she wanted as she saw it all again….

FLASHBACK:

Max woke slowly, sluggishly, looking with blurry vision at the strange surroundings, ones that were also frighteningly familiar. Her body stiffened, sending a shock of pain through her whole body, and she closed her eyes and grit her teeth until the rippling pain in her back subsided. 

Slowly she became conscious of the restraints on her wrists, her ankles and one securely strapped to her waist, restricting her movement to her head only. She was also aware of the cold kiss of air across her back with the exception of three spots that were covered, the tape holding the gauze down itching fiercely as they kept air from the skin. She remembered vividly the pain that tore through her chest into her insides as she hung three stories above the ground, in a desperate attempt to escape capture. She had already been torn about leaving Logan behind. And she paid for her reluctance to leave him with three bits of hot lead that resided in her chest. She knew that she had come close to death that night just as she knew that they had only kept her alive because of the baby.

Somewhere in the background she heard two monitors beeping tracking two different heartbeats, one… steady and strong, hers she knew. The other weak, thready, and irregular and she knew it to be from her progeny and it sounded as if it was fading fast. She knew that, though she did not want to admit it even to herself, for she remembered the vivacious heartbeat of the baby from just before her and Logan's night out. It had been the reason for their celebration, though now she wished they had just celebrated at home. If they had she might not be here in Manticore, and about to lose a baby that she had never seen, never really asked for, but was more attached to than anyone except Logan.

"Logan…" she thought morosely closing her eyes against impending tears. Had he survived? She hoped he had, but knew that he had probably been killed to "tie up loose ends". But what if they knew? What if Logan had been what they were after? Not her… but him? If they knew, he might be in this place too. A subject of an experiment to try and discern why Manticore blood could turn an ordinary human into a Manticore like humanoid.

She tried to lift her head to get a better look at her surroundings only to have the tearing pain come back and her head fell back to the same place staring at the left hand wall, sucking in a pained breath waiting for the burning sensation to subside.

"You really shouldn't do that," A familiar voice said behind her, "You'll tear the stitches."

She saw him then, swimming into her wavering vision, she felt her own face harden at the sight of him, "You bastard," she whispered in a slurred voice her cheek pressed uncomfortably on the vinyl headrest. She then realized the source of her weakness was not the wounds in her back it was the sedative that had been administered her to keep her from breaking her bonds. Her anger turned white hot then realizing that it was endangering the baby's health that much more.

"Welcome home Max," Lydecker said as he seated himself just a foot away from her face.

"Bite me," She whispered, hoping it had come out more forceful than it sounded in her ears. She blinked slowly refocusing on the man's swimming face.

"You have been a real thorn in my side, Max, but I see that my persistence has paid off. And you even have given me a present in addition to your return," He smiled almost paternally, "If we can keep you both alive that is," He added and she knew that he understood about the baby's condition. 

She frowned, "I don't even matter to you right now," Max said softly, "Don't think you can delude me into thinking otherwise. I'm only here because you want the baby. I know what you did to the others… I know what your standing orders are," She finished in a hiss.

His lips pursed as they always did when he was uncomfortable, "I did what I had to… they gave me no other choice," He looked back into Max's face as if that would make it all right, that it would make her understand his logic. They way he had worded it made her wonder if he was talking about her fellow X-5's or the people who directed his project. She thought it might have been a little of both.

She scowled at him, "Like a good little soldier? I don't buy that."

Lydecker stood suddenly motioning to someone Max couldn't see, "We'll talk again later," He said simply, avoidance, she saw from the look on his face. He didn't like what he had been made to do to the other four. It was a pain as deep as if he had lost his flesh and blood children and not the surrogate ones he had created at Manticore. Max felt a pang of pity for him, then squashed it telling herself he was not worth the emotion.

He stepped away as Max felt the small prick in her arm and slowly lost consciousness again.

When Max next awoke she was in a regular hospital bed slightly inclined. She was still shackled and there was still an IV in her arm and a monitor strapped across her abdomen. She listened intently straining to hear her baby's heartbeat. It was there but it was very faint, too faint. A pang of anxiety and helplessness hit her. She was losing it, she had been injured too badly, lost too much blood to support the growing child inside her. She closed her eyes, her jaw working as the reality of it hit her, "I'm so sorry," she whispered to the empty room wanting to raise a hand and rest where the baby was fighting for it's survival, unable to even do that much to comfort it… to comfort herself. Max looked up at the ceiling, "I'm sorry Logan, I should have listened," she said, the tears welling over as she second guessed every move she had made that night, tried to think of what she could have done differently result in a different outcome.

It was not long after that the monitor stopped registering the baby, but Max couldn't hear it through her own sobs of grief. She didn't realize it until hours later, until the first of the contractions started. Sharp omnipresent pains that shot nova's through her brain and caused her to break out in a sweat, biting her own lip until it bled with the intensity. She cried out several times as the pain cut her like a knife, telling her that her body was rejecting the now dead fetus. She cried harder as the bloodstain grew on her bed, overwhelmed with the realization that she had lost the baby, the separation from the man in her life and the return to the one place she always loathed returning too. 

A harder part of her soul cried out in triumph, knowing that she had foiled Lydecker's plans for her and for her baby. That animalistic part of her was happy that she would be unable to provide the man with another subject of experimentation. As the doctors rushed in to attend her in her miscarriage they found her laughing hysterically through her tears of anguish. When they tried to attend her she lunged at them snapping animalistically with her teeth fighting hard against the restraints. The pain of the contractions no longer affected her, she was shelled within herself, and like an animal in a corner she was trying to defend herself in her grief. They were forced to sedate her to work on her at all.


	5. Internment

Thanks for all the feedback so far on this repost! I appreciate all the reviews, even if this is the second time around!

Still working the issue on the B&P story (Trying to decide where exactly to go with it….that is, do I give it a story line rivaling some of my others or do I just make it fluff like I was originally going to. Any suggestions?). Working it steadily, rehashing what I have so far and trying to decide on the direction…SIGH the trials and tribulations of being a writer!

Darwin

Chapter Four: Internment

Present:

Max stopped momentarily and looked up at Logan, whose face was ashen, his eyes wide, the muscles in his jaw stood out, but there was no emotion to be read really anywhere in his features. She desperately wanted to know what he might be thinking at that moment, but found herself afraid to ask, for fear of the answer. Instead she looked back down at the floor and pressed on, wanting the secret out, to bleed the poison from her soul before she exploded from holding it in…

FLASHBACK:

Max floated in and out of consciousness for the next week or so, both for her physical condition and for her mental state. She began to understand what Logan's bouts of depression felt like, as the weight of the world seemed to be resting on her shoulders. Medically she was recovering nicely, but her mental state was tattered, and she was so withdrawn that she felt to be out of her body watching everything that happened to her as if from a distance. She saw the nurses and doctors come and go hearing their conversations as echoes in her mind. She was in such poor shape that when Lydecker returned to check on her she did not even react, not even to blink.

Her eye's slowly moved as she heard his voice, "How is she?" She stared at him with disinterest, as if he was an apparition, a figment of her overtaxed imagination.

"Well… she is well recovered from the miscarriage and her gunshot wounds are completely healed.   
But she appears to be suffering from some sort of traumatic shock, she doesn't eat, she hardly drinks. We had to put her back on IV just to keep her systems from shutting down altogether."

Another voice chimed in, one she did not recognize, "Sir, why are we bothering? You know the orders."

"I know the orders," Lydecker repeated, "But why waste the opportunity, we already have her in custody," She heard him shift, "When can we start working with her again? I want her reindoctrinated as soon as possible."

"Physically she is ready now," the doctor said, "But her head isn't anywhere near being ready to take the conditioning."

Max could imagine his lips pursing at the news, imagine because her sight had grayed out again. Inwardly she smiled happy to jab him yet again, but there was also a sense of foreboding, reindoctrination… she did not want to become a soldier again, she would not! She was determined to foil him in any attempt at making her into a mindless killing machine.

"Actually…" She heard Lydecker muss, "The weakness might be to our advantage, it would make it easier for the programming to work. I want her prepped, first thing in the morning I want her started on the program."

"What!" both the doctor and the other man protested loudly.

"Sir," The doctor said, "You might make her into a vegetable if you start her now!"

"We're wasting time and funding," The other man said, disagreeing for a completely different reason, "We already know that success with an X-5 escapee is only about 15%. The board will not allow…"

"Duly noted," He interrupted and she could just guess that he was glaring them into silence, "I will take responsibility for the subject. Have her ready by morning."

With that she heard him storm out of the room. She listened to him leave, feeling the butterflies rise in her stomach, scared beyond reason, hoping that she could live up to the brave words she had bolstered herself with only moments before. She hoped she would be able to resist.

How long had it been now? She had already lost track of the days, weeks, perhaps even months since she had been in Lydecker's hands. She watched as he stormed out yet again from another session gone wrong. She smiled around the gag watching out of the corner of her eyes at his frustration level. She had been right, she could resist his programming, and she would retain her own personality after all.

She had managed to bilk fifteen sessions of steadily increasing intensity and pain, only to come away spitting curses at Lydecker. None of it was sinking in, and Lydecker was beginning to see the futility of even trying to reprogram her. But in his pride and want to be right he continued to try, trying to get a success like Bryn, another soldier recovered from the sentimental emotional mess that he had retrieved from the outside world. Not her, Max was going to stay Max, as long as she lived, and Damn Lydecker to Hell if he didn't like it.

Max waited with eminent patience as she heard the heated argument coming from just beyond the door as if they were standing right next to her.

"The board is furious!" She heard the little rat man say. She had started calling him rat man a while back, for the way he scurried about, for his beady eyes and just the underhanded way that he acted whenever she saw him. She was sure that he worked for someone else as a spy not directly for Lydecker as he tried to appear, "They have now invested four months and forty thousand dollars on your say that she was going to be converted that… she was going to be a valued asset again."

"I don't give a damn about how the board feels," Lydecker replied in a calmer voice, "She will come back to us… eventually."

"And at what cost?"

"What does it matter… except maybe to those penny pinching bastards back at the main office?"

"Those penny pinchers hold your ass in the palm of their hands, they're about ready to fire you outright and put someone else in who is more in line with their way of thinking."

"They don't have anyone else with my level of experience with these kids."

"I don't think they care," there was a silence, "They sent this fax to me this morning," another silence, "They began testing the fetus on arrival and it shows the same genetic landmarks as its mother. Seems that this X-5 has the same ability to pass her genetics on to her offspring as we have seen with a few of the others, of which one is dead and the other in the wind someplace. The board wants to exploit the opportunity presented by this X-5," Max went taut in her bonds her eyes wide, "They want her impregnated immediately."

Lydecker sounded dejected as he replied, "Immediately."

Max started thrashing in her bonds, thoughts of the story she had been told about her own mother washing up behind her eyes, she didn't want to be a surrogate, she didn't want to be touched like that! She was not some animal in need of husbandry help!

"Logan!!" She thought bitterly, knowing deep down that there was no rescue from this fate. No Zach to help get her out, no one and nothing to fall back on, not here… It was all gone.

She was in surgery the very next day as they extracted her ova for use in the latest experiment on her. She thrashed so violently as they brought her in that they were forced to strap her heavily. Now she could barely move at all, even her head was strapped to the surgery bed. Her whole body was stiff in protest of her treatment, even as she cried knowing even her best efforts were in vain.

If this proved successful there was no doubt that they would keep her caged producing children as fast as she was fertile to restock the dwindling genetic supply in Manticore's possession. Caged and shackled like the Alien Queen she remembered seeing in a sci-fi flick, her only purpose in life was to bring the next generation into being. That was not how she wanted to spend the remainder of her days!

It had been two years in the vise like grip of Manticore, Max had found through a sympathetic intern. She grimaced inwardly not realizing that so much time had passed. She had been in and out of tranquilizers so much in that time she knew that much of it had passed without her even realizing the time had been lost. She looked around her assessing the possible weaknesses of her surroundings, she grimaced they were bleak to say the least. She had recently been transferred to another building on the complex. 

She was pretty sure it was because of her soaring lack of success carrying any of the children they had tried to start in her, to term. She had lost most in the first weeks of pregnancy. One she had managed to carry for five months before it was lost. While she was happy that she had thwarted Manticore again and again she was becoming worried about the trend. What if there was something wrong with her? She had almost convinced herself that it was something in their procedure that was causing her to abort the attempts. But she still had a pang of doubt, when she got out of here… if she got out of here, if Logan was still alive, she did have every intention of trying for more kids. That was a lot of "If's", but she still held out hope even after two years that she would eventually be freed of her bondage. But recent events cast a serious doubt about her ability to conceive and carry to term any child. 

The Transfer had happened in the middle of the night, oddly with no escorts that she had been able to determine, just Lydecker. He had her blindfolded and bound tightly and moved as if he was trying to avoid detection by anyone. After a long time traveling he had plopped her down in a chair, secured her thoroughly and removed her blindfold… and without saying a word he had left her here.

The room was plain the walls were painted gray almost black in color. She was seated on a metal chair that reminded her of the electric chairs she had seen in old films about capital punishment. She peered down seeing that the chair was bolted to the floor with bolts that must have been an inch across on the head of them. She wondered silently what they were so worried about.

She had lost track permanently of the days she had been her, she had even lost her ability to care about it. One day into the next it was all a blur of pain and frustration and humiliation and a hundred other adjectives that described her existence now. All she had been since she had been here in this particular room was a target… a target unable to fight back against the frustrations of Lydecker's foiled life. Even the sight of another had been little comfort. It had been a tease when that X-10 that Kito character had come into her life, leaving her behind like so much garbage, dead weight. He had promised her release, had even started freeing her of her bonds. What happened after that she had begun to think was some well-staged hoax. He had been "Overcome" by soldiers and she had not seen him since.

Lydecker was here now, just standing by, and she wondered bitterly what he was waiting for. She was so used to the abuse now she couldn't even remember a time when there was no pain in her life. But he just stood, to the right of the door looking at it and not her as if he was expecting company. She felt her head droop again, the one thing that he had done was to give her a sedative.

That was when she heard the din outside, she wanted to look up as she heard the door open, but was unable to. Then she heard his name… in a voice so familiar she knew she was dreaming, having a sedative induced hallucination. She regained control of her motor functions finally able to lift her head, she gasped aching as she saw him. She told herself that it had to be an apparition, a ghost of her steadily deteriorating mental state. His look was wrong… he was older than she remembered, his hair graying steadily. He was dressed in a black infiltration suit and the look on his face was one that she could never recall seeing on Logan ever, grim determination. He paused in the doorway his gun slowly lowering and the look on his face sliding off like water and a look she recognized from him, relief, happiness. "No!" her head denied her sight, "He is dead! It is another trick another torture!"

That thought went around and around in her head, denying the reality of her sight, until he touched her and the reality slammed into her like a shock. It was him, it was Logan and he was here to rescue her.


	6. Only Ashes Remain

Chapter Five: …Only Ashes Remain.

Max looked up again when she finished telling her story. She found that she was shaking uncontrollably with the anxious adrenaline rush. She felt slightly better for having gotten that out in the open, but she was anxious to see what Logan's reaction to the news was going to be. She tried not to fidget as she waited for some kind of response.

Max's eyes searched over Logan's form, and from what she saw she knew that he was not taking it well. Logan was no longer looking at her, he had leaned forward with his elbows resting on his knees. His hands were clasped together tightly, so tight that his knuckles had turned white and the muscles in his arms stood out like cords with his tension. His head hung down, and his gaze was cast to one side, the tight set to his jaw was still there, and the muscles worked back and forth. He did not move even when she had finished speaking and she barely caught a glimpse of his eyes darting back and forth taking in the minute details of the rug even as his mind processed what he had been told.

At first Max said nothing, waiting for him to look at her, to even just sigh or take a deep breath, anything. But he just sat looking at the floor looking as if he was going to snap at any moment. The silence dragged out longer, nothing spoken and nothing to be heard except the thrumming of her own heart.

"Say something," Max prompted in a cracked whisper. Still she was afraid of his reaction, afraid of being excommunicated from the man she loved with all her heart and soul.

Slowly he looked up at her, his normally brilliant blue eyes faded to a stormy gray. They were red and glossy with tears, but they met her eyes solidly, he did not look away as she had expected him to do, as if sickened by the sight of her. The tension in his face tied her insides up in knots. He slowly sat up, "I'm sorry, Max, I… I didn't know…" He said in a pained voice, shaking his head side to side, "I didn't know…" he repeated, "I wish I had… I'd have come for you sooner."

She let out her breath in a burst of air, certainly surprised at his response. She found that she was mad at his calm reply when she was expecting him to be angry, to be outraged by what they had done to her. She expected, and she found she wanted a confrontation about this to absolve herself of the guilt she was feeling, something to make her feel normal. Him coming across so understanding only made her feel worse about the situation and about herself. It stabbed her making her feel like it didn't really matter to him. She felt hot tears running down her cheeks again at the thought of it. 

A concerned look crossed over Logan's face and he stood and re-seated himself beside her laying an arm gently across her shoulders, "It's not your fault, Max, none of it was," Misconstruing the reason for her tears.

Max stood abruptly starting away from him and then wheeling around to face him again, "Why do you have to be so damned understanding all the time!" She shouted hoarsely through her tears.

Logan's shocked expression quickly faded into anger and he rose more slowly to face her, "What do you want me to say, Max?" He said in an amazingly even voice, "That I'm hurt? That I'm angry, feel guilty that you were stuck there for four years when I could have gotten you out of there, humiliated for what you went through?" He sighed angrily his mouth a thin line, "All of the above! Damn Max, of course I _feel_ about this, but what good is it going to do to take it out on you? You were a victim of an egregious set of acts, but that does not make it your fault. 

"I'm mad as hell," He growled, finally showing some spark of indignation and her heart lightened a little, "Yes, but not at you… angry at myself maybe, for giving up on you so soon. Mostly I'm mad at Lydecker… The man has a way of tearing lives apart with some twisted sense that what he does is just… a sense that his purpose is pure. That bastard has done more to ruin my life in the past ten years than anybody I know, even Uncle Jonus couldn't top him for the loathing I feel toward him." He paused as his face pinched, "One of these days Lydecker's going to have Hell to pay for what he has done to you, me, the X-5's, and every person he has ever corrupted with his touch."

"I should have been able to do something," Max argued, intentionally ignoring Logan's speech, "I should have listened to you, left sooner, not given them the time to get at me. I should have tried harder to escape Manticore once I was there. There should have been something I could have done different!" Max wailed angrily.

"And I should have never taken you back home through the alley that night. I should have had the premonition that you were still alive, I should have known to investigate further into it to be sure that you had in fact been killed. Even when all my senses had told me you were dead in my arms. Even when I awoke alone in the alley to find your blood on my hands, knowing what Manticore did to recycle their dead," Logan blasted her back. He shook his head quieting again, "Max, we could play twenty-twenty hindsight all day long, it will not change our parting and it will not change what has happened to each of us since."

Max turned away again crossing her arms over her chest, he was right of course, but she was unable to let go of the notion that something else could have… should have been done in those four years. She moved back over to the couch and stared out at the night sky again, closing herself off from Logan. She needed some time to think about things. 

She wondered if he was really truly OK with her story that he really laid no blame on her for what had happened. Or was it as it was when he was trying to deal with his disability, that he was putting on the brave front. Telling her that he had wrapped his head around it to keep them from one of their infamous blustery fights. She frowned to herself, not liking not knowing what exactly his motivation was. 

There was something about him now, he had changed in the past four years, she found that she wasn't sure that she really knew him anymore. She wanted to attribute it to their long separation, to her own discomfort with what had happened. But there was something else something that she couldn't quite put a finger on. 

Logan stared after Max as she walked away from him, feeling her close in on herself again. He sighed heavily thinking, "Just like the old days," somehow it was comforting to know that they were never going to agree on all things, "At least our marriage will never be a dull one."

He looked away blinking slowly. Butterflies rose in his stomach, and he wondered if Max had believed him, that he was really OK with what had happened. He was being honest with her and with himself. None of it had been her fault, there was not a thing about it she could have controlled.

So why was he angry? 

Because, it did hurt that Lydecker had abused her, just as Kito had suggested. He found that he was angry with himself for not overriding Zach's decision to let the man go. He had been spent by the ordeal, glad to have just gotten Max out, he had been in no state of mind for an informed decision on the matter. Now Logan would have to live with the fact that the man who had overseen the project, the man who had allowed for her attempted reprogramming, her multiple forced impregnation's was still walking around loose in the world. It was the same kind of frustration as if she had been raped and the perpetrator was still walking the streets. He felt angry and helpless about it. But he was determined to leave Max out of the blame circle.

He had told himself that he had let go of his want for revenge, now it came back strong, backing up into his throat with an acid taste, and he swallowed hard trying to beat it down. Logan forced himself to leave the room and he found himself moving back toward the same corner of the balcony that he had been at earlier in the evening.

Logan closed his eyes, took a deep breath and slowly let it out. He had come to realize recently that since his DNA had been rewritten, along with the extraordinary abilities it had given him, he found himself prone to more aggressive behavior than he had ever been in his life. Tonight it was fueled by Max's story and he was overrun with adrenaline, "And no place to apply it," He thought sarcastically. It was something of a discipline to keep those dark tendencies under control. Another set of hurdles for him overcome. Overcoming obstacles was something that he was getting good at and he was not going to let this one stump him when nothing else had.

His thoughts darkened again as a portion of Max's story surfaced in his head. Manticore had made multiple attempts to get Max pregnant… and she had lost every one, was there something wrong with her that she was unable to conceive and carry a child to term? That begged the question did she lose the first due to the loss of blood and fluids or was it already in her DNA to abort any attempt? His heart skipped a beat at the thought, if the latter were true that would leave little hope of a child in their future. 

While he would always be happy just to have Max in his life, he wanted kids, and he knew Max did as well. Ever since she had seen Tinga and her son she had been subtly driving toward that goal. It would tear her apart if she found that she was unable to realize that goal. 

And what about him? He was forty-two, even if Max was to get pregnant now, he would be forty three when it was born and by the time the child went to high school, he would be near retirement age. He still wanted a child of his own, but was concerned about not being there when his child would need him, in this world that could be a serious detriment. 

If she did get pregnant, and she was to carry it to term, what about Max's statement about her ability to pass on her Manticore traits to the child? A pang hit him, they were both endowed with Manticore abilities now, an almost guarantee of an exceptionally talented child. Two thoughts concerning that floated through his mind, one, how would they handle that kind of child growing up? The other was, he knew somehow Manticore would find out about it and then there would be no stopping them in their quest to get the child from them. Both thoughts scared Logan, and he began to seriously consider trying to talk Max out of her quest to have children. He snorted quietly, that would never happen, she was bull headed when it came to what she wanted, just as much as he was.

Logan took a deep breath looking up and out over the city again, "Best to let the future become the present and take it as it comes," he admonished himself silently. Logan straightened then looking down at his watch. An eyebrow raised it was already one thirty in the morning, "No wonder I'm so tired," he thought. He turned back toward his apartment, deciding it was time to get things settled with Max, so they could both go to bed.


	7. Out of the Ashes

Chapter Six: "Out of the Ashes of Old…"

Logan paused a moment staring back at his well-lit apartment, sighing. There was a part of him that wanted to rush back to her, to claim the fault for everything, and just somehow make her feel no pain from the ordeal that she had been through. Well meaning? Yes… well intentioned, of course, but he knew that it was not the best of actions to take, not with Max. She saw through false sentiment like it was glass and she tended to make shards out of it, very sharp ones, he knew. A few of their most infamous fights were over such false shows of emotion, or claiming none where it was burgeoning.

He would continue to refrain from pushing her a direction she was not willing to go, realizing that she may not be as ready to make up as he was. Another trait she was good for, holding grudges. 

Logan looked up again as he realized that he was staring at the concrete at his feet, and his eyes went directly to the window he knew she was behind, even with the mirroring that tended to make the interior of his place VERY private. She could see him from where she sat, he knew, if she even cared to look up at him. Finally he decided the time was right to try and mend the rift the years had put between them, and he made his way across the expanse of tile between him and his balcony entrance, wondering if she was watching his progress. His radar told him that she had not moved from the spot where she had lit on the couch and he cautiously made his way back there to talk to her again. 

Right now he just needed to get her mind off the subject, but he wasn't sure how without sounding callous and uncaring about what she had gone through. He slowly walked up behind her, running light fingers down her neck watching as she shivered uncontrollably at his touch.

"So the answer is 'yes'," He started feeling brilliant for coming up with a way to approach and then back off from the subject.

Max turned to face him looking confused, "Yes what?" She said in a harsh tone. Logan could tell that she was still angry with herself.

Logan looked at her with sincere eyes as he said, "You asked me to wait until you were done with your story," Logan sat down next to her. Max shifted a little more on the couch to look at him without straining her neck, "The answer is yes, despite everything that you… that we have been through, I still love you, Max."

"You mean that," Max asked in a shaky voice.

"Max," Logan said his voice descending and fading away until it was almost inaudible, "I wouldn't say something like that if it were not true. I survived four tedious lonely years, never knowing that you were still alive, but loving you all the while, unable to feel anything for another person the way I had felt about you. I stormed into a Manticore held base when I got word that you were there and alive, despite my misgivings about the possibility it was a trap to get me into a cage… all to get you out. Believe me… I mean it."

Max's smile faded in and out as she judged the sincerity of his words. Eventually it faded out again as something pricked at her consciousness, "Even if…" She paused a moment, "But… I don't think…" she started stumbling on something obviously bothersome to her, "I'm not sure… that kids… are going to be an option, Logan."

Logan looked down licking his lips and unconsciously putting his watch back in just the right spot on his wrist. He looked up a little more soberly, "Kids were never a condition of my love for you," He shrugged, "I married you because of a lot of things. The way we complement each other, the fact that we don't always agree and know it's OK not to… Lot's of things. If children happen it will only make me that much happier. If it doesn't," Logan shrugged again, "I can't hold it against you either," He purposely neglected to mention his advancing age to her, "What matters to me the most right now is that I have you back in my life. I…" He seemed to choke up a bit, "I never realized just how much… I missed you until you came back to me."

Max felt her heart compress a bit at his admonition. She reached out for the first time to touch his face. She smiled through her pending tears and ran a thumb lightly over his lips before leaning in and kissing him lightly on the lips. It was a short kiss, and she smiled slightly again as she backed away. Logan smiled too, not pushing the issue, knowing she was not ready for anything more intimate than that right now.

Logan stood up slowly, stifling a yawn and consulting his watch. It was two fifteen, "I think it's time we went to bed," He said simply, offering her his hand again. This time she smiled and took it helping herself to her feet.

"That sounds so good right now," She said sounding tired.

They went to the bedroom together Logan maintaining contact with Max with light fingers on her back as they made their way down the hall. They lay down again, maintaining that contact, as Logan held her close against him, letting her feel his warmth, letting her take strength from him, as he did the same with her presence. Neither needed more than that, content just to be near one another.

Max woke early the next morning, just as the sun was beginning to peek through the high rises surrounding their home. She slowly freed herself of Logan's warm and protective arm and got out of bed. She looked down at him smiling at the peaceful way he was sleeping. She padded lightly out of the room and out into the hall. She was beginning to revert to a very old routine, one that predated her and Logan's meeting, little or no sleep each and every night. She usually slept more during the day, staying up nearly all night long, and she could feel her body starting to readjust. She had never known what time it was when she was captive, and she was never able to get a good sleep in, only catnaps. A catnap, that is, because she was either interrupted by Lydecker or suffered terrible nightmares that woke her and kept her from sleeping for hours afterwards. 

Max felt slightly better this morning, and the weight that she had been feeling seemed to have lifted a bit as she slept. She padded slowly about the apartment taking in more detail than she had the night before, distracted as she had been with her own personal demons. They were still there, pricking at the back of her consciousness, making her stomach twist on occasion, making her doubt herself, her past choices and even Logan's sincerity last night. 

They both had really wanted a family… that the possibility existed that it may not happen nagged at her. She tried to ignore it, concentrating instead on her home, God but that sounded good rattling around in her head. A warm welcoming place where she felt safe from threats, it was a false hope she knew all too well, but it was one she chose to cling tenaciously to. 

She had thought that very little had changed in it last night, but now she began to notice differences both subtle and jarring, from the way it had been when they had first married. Her previous assessment about the knick-knacks had been right on, much of the smaller items of interest in his house were now gone, surely sold to keep Logan above water. The expansive apartment seemed more frugal a place for their absence. 

She moved down the hall stopping first in his study. Max slowly opened the sliding door, taking a look around. At first glance it looked the least changed in both style and function. His computer and recording equipment had not been rearranged since she had been here last nor had it been sold off piece by piece like some of the artwork had. It was probably what he had sold the art for to support the Informant Net for Eye's Only. She was sure that he had not given that up, his conscience still pricked at him she was sure, to save the downtrodden and weary masses yearning to go unnoticed. And there, exactly where she remembered it last was the last wheelchair that Logan had been using before the use of his legs had been restored. He had a friend make it into a work of art for him, mounting it such that it balanced one large wheel tilting the empty seat toward any and all who would enter the room. It had been adorned with ivy in various shades as if rooted to the base of the sculpture. He had made it into the centerpiece of his study, a tribute to life and a sharp reminder of its bitter sense of humor. She slowly stepped over to it running light fingers over the frame of it as the memories from that time flooded back into her mind. It had been a tumultuous time in both of their lives, and they had butted heads more than they had gotten along. She smiled fondly at the remembrances of it.

She tried to imagine what it might have been like living for nearly a year without being able to walk or run or jump. Jarringly she realized she knew exactly what it was like, worse even. She remembered the stiff metal chair cold and hard under her and the straps that bit into her flesh and had always restricted her breathing. She had been confined like that for over two years, unable to even get up to relieve herself.

She backed away from the wheelchair staring back at it as if it was the source of that uncomfortable vision, she was shaking as she tried to dump the correlation out of her mind. He had at least been mobile, she had not even been given that luxury. 

Max quickly moved her eyes elsewhere trying to distract herself before her mind went down that dark and convoluted road of her internment again. She looked closer at his desktop as she noticed the highly advanced model of his current computer arrangement. It was a very expensive, extremely fast model. She wondered silently what he would need with one so fast, as she ran her fingers gingerly over the keyboard. Shrugging to herself she wandered out of the study, deftly avoiding looking at Logan's old Wheelchair again.

She moved further down the hall stopping abruptly as she came to what used to be his physical therapy room. She saw nothing of what she remembered it looking like in the past. When he had first lost the use of his legs all that had been in here was a bench and a couple of sets of weights. Once he had recovered the use of his legs it had been transformed into a workout studio of treadmills and stair-climbers, to assist him in building up his atrophied muscles. It was now completely changed from that even. It was a training room. The room was bare of any furniture, the floor was covered wall to wall in a blue padded mat. At the other end of the room was a punching bag, well used from the look of it. That left most of the floor space open, for what she could only guess was sparring. There were weights mounted to the walls as well as several sets of padded kickboxing gloves and protective headgear. An eyebrow raised at the sight, realizing that he had actually begun to take his talents seriously.

Max pursed her lips stepping into the room in earnest, realizing that she had not been able to practice herself in a long time. Tentatively, feeling very self-conscious about it she began to stretch out working her underused muscles. She then began to practice at first just fighting stances working through a routine she had tried many times in the past to forget, but it always came back natural as breathing, one she had been pounded with every day in her nine years in Manticore. One that she worked through without thinking, not wanting to remember the source of the drill just the benefits of knowing it.

When she was done loosening up she began to work at the bag, feeling her frustrations burn off as flesh hit canvas. She started off with standard punches and kicks not sure of the quality of her balance to try her more acrobatic defensive fighting. Her practice became more and more aggressive and her punches and kicks began to get harder as pent up frustration and anger surfaced in her, given vent finally on something forgiving. Soon she was sweating profusely feeling better every minute.

She stopped abruptly as she realized she had an audience. She spun around quickly her adrenaline up and her fighting instincts piqued.


	8. The Phoenix Ariseth

Chapter Seven: "…The Phoenix Ariseth"

She blinked several times finding Logan leaning on the doorframe and watching her with an odd smile on his face. He was dressed only in a pair of sweatpants, and she raised eyebrows again appreciatively at the definition of his body. He was still groggy, she could see, it was only about seven in the morning, and she knew while he tended to run on very little sleep that he did need more than she did. 

"What are you doing up so early?" She asked still breathing hard and relaxing her stance.

"I guess I'm still not used to another body in the house at this hour," He said honestly, "My internal radar picked up an 'intruder' and woke me out of a dead sleep. I usually know when its Tima coming for a visit, so I was ready to kick some tail… then I realized it was you. By that time it was too late, the adrenaline was in my system and I couldn't get back to sleep." He replied matter-of-factly.

"Hm? What do you mean internal radar?" Max asked thrown off by the reference.

He laughed abruptly, looking away a moment as if he was sorry to have mentioned it, "How do I explain it," He muttered, "It was something I began to develop just before you were taken, another side effect of my blood transfusion, I'm pretty sure. I never got the chance to consult you about it."

He raised his hands, seeming to fail utterly at finding the words, "It's two fold really," He finally got out, "One side of it… well just as I said it is like an internal radar. I can… sense people around me, I can track exactly where they are in relation to me without even seeing them, up to about fifty feet away," He shifted his weight off the door frame and stepped into the room. He moved over to the punching bag and stopped turning to face Max again, "It's how I knew that Tima was tailing me for five days before she tried to take me down. 

"The other side of it is a… danger sense… I don't want to say it is premonition, because it is much more accurate than that. I can sense the level of threat from any person within my range and I can tell when something is going to happen, exactly, and can avoid or counteract the danger before it affects me. I saved Zach with it twice just during the mission in Yreka."

She looked at him as if he had grown a set of horns, "What?" she said incredulously.

"I know it's hard to believe," Logan said, laughing uncomfortably, "I certainly didn't know what to make of it when it first occurred. I honestly thought I was coming down with something or had food poisoning the first time it manifested itself in the alley."

Max looked really confused now and sighing in frustration Logan said, "It manifests itself as a feeling, kind of like anxiety and nausea all rolled together. The intensity of the feeling is what tells me the likelihood of something occurring. It happened again when we got to Yreka and were nearly ambushed, it was only then that I realized its potential meaning."

"Really?" She asked incredulously, "I… I've never had that happen," She said carefully.

"Nobody we know has that ability," Logan confirmed, "Not even Tima or Kito. They are all as surprised about it as I was. It's almost like a side effect, an anomaly."

"You are not a 'nomaly," She spit suddenly whisked back into a childhood fear of the monsters in the basement, dragging the bad soldiers into the dark.

Logan frowned at her reaction, "'Nomaly?" He repeated and then a light dawned, "Oh jeez Max, it's not like that! I'm not going to turn into some drooling creature."

She shook herself out, "No," she whispered, "No of course not," she forced herself to smile, then she frowned again, "What else has developed since I've been gone?" She asked out of sheer curiosity.

"Nothing, I just have been honing what gifts you gave me," He wouldn't meet her eyes and she knew that there was something that he did not want her to know.

She couldn't help but call him on it, "There is something else," she said shifting to the other foot, "What?"

He looked her dead in the eyes frowning at her for trying to pursue it, "It's nothing," Logan said in a tone that said drop the subject.

She heard it but didn't take the hint, "Well?"

Logan didn't answer her, and he started to turn away from her, shaking his head. Max got the hint and let it go for the moment.

"So…" She started on another tact, "I noticed that you've been practicing," She looked at him demurely as he turned back to face her, "I was pretty impressed with the way you took care of Lydecker back there."

Logan smiled, looking again embarrassed about his ability and the way he had handled that situation, "Um, yeah, like I said, Tima helped me along on that. I guess it foretold our little excursion to the base to get you out." 

Max just nodded, "Guess so," She assumed a fighting stance, "So… show me what you can do."

Logan shook his head again smiling apologetically this time, "Not right now Max, let me wake up and get some food in me and then I'll think about it."

"What, the great Logan Cale, Knight on the White Charger, Rescuer of Damsels in Distress, is not up to a challenge to his honor?" She teased him.

"This knight is retired from the business… I'd like to think permanently," Logan replied raising his eyebrows at her as he turned away from her and headed for the door. His nerves were still on edge from the expectation of having to stave off an intruder and he was worried that he would become overzealous in his practice. He wanted to show her, he was actually pretty proud of what he had accomplished in the short time that Tima had been training him, but he wanted to wait until he was a little more in control.

Max started to reach across the expanse between them intent on getting his attention trying to cajole him into a sparring match. Logan's danger sense went off and before he could think about what he was doing, out of sheer reaction, he whirled on her. Before she had even laid a finger on him, he spun back to face her, knocking her hand down and stepping into her hitting her hard with a flat palm in the left shoulder. Before she knew what happened she was on the floor.

She looked up at him a moment shocked as he stepped back, looking grim, "You asked for that, Max," Logan said shaking his head, "The defenses are on automatic this early in the morning." 

She gathered her feet under her and back-flipped some distance away from him. She looked back at him smiling slyly, thinking that he was getting into the spirit of the game. She rushed in at him round-housing on his head, he ducked back and blocked it, and his face darkened. 

"Knock it off Max, I'm not in the mood for a sparring session," Logan said. He threw her foot down and to one side which Max, still fighting playfully, used to come up with the other foot, which connected squarely with his chest just under his armpit. He grunted as he shifted to the side, becoming angrier as she insisted on pursuing this. He recovered quickly as she came at him again, he blocked her next few chops and stabs. He fell into an automatic train of discipline, one that Tima had been driving into him for several months. He was grateful for the teachings now, dropping out of the way of effectiveness of her attack. He hit the mat as he swept out into her leg. Max somersaulted back managing not to fall to the maneuver, only to come to her feet into Logan's own offensive maneuvers. His motion was fast and furious as he threw combinations of kicks punches and jabs at her driving her back several feet as she tried to block each blow. She could just feel how out of practice she was, and she could see how much improved Logan was in his ability, and it quelled her doubts about his effectiveness when they had come to rescue her.

She saw him falter momentarily as his thigh muscle protested his exercise, not having been properly stretched out for the game Max insisted on playing with him. The leg gave out and Logan went down. She went after him, as he used momentum to roll over one shoulder and come to his feet. He limped back several steps as he recovered his balance. He ducked back again as Max swung with a fist and Logan's arm came up to block it.

Without warning, Logan stepped into her next throw, lessening the impact and grabbed her by the lapel pulling her toward him. In a maneuver she remembered using on Zach once a blue moon ago, he spun them both off of their feet twirling until she landed heavily on the mat Logan's weight resting on top of her. Max lay there a moment staring at the ceiling winded from her landing.

"Are you finished? Are you satisfied?" Logan growled, "You actually managed to get a rise out of me," His body was taught ready in case she decided to continue this altercation. His grip on her shirt was grim.

Suddenly Max broke out in a smile, "You have gotten damn good," She said.

Logan looked at her a moment confused by her reaction, silent in the face of her praise. His grip on her shirt began to relax as Max's smile faded into a different kind of smile. I was a warm, loving, inviting smile. And Logan felt his body react. Max raised a hand to his face running light fingers over his stubble covered chin as she looked deeply into those suddenly sea blue eyes. Slowly Logan leaned down until they were kissing, it was a long deep passionate kiss and soon both of their hands were moving, exploring each others bodies as their sweat mingled where their skin contacted each other.

Logan's hands found their way under the light shirt that Max had worn to bed last night, caressing her breasts lightly as they continued to kiss. The other hand reached under her shirt then, Logan backed up a minute and slowly lifted the shirt up exposing her beautifully built chest. He smiled into her eyes and then kissed her again, long, slow, and deep. Slowly his mouth moved over her chin to the crook of her neck, kissing gently, insistently as his hand continued to move over her body. He explored with closed eyes using his hands and his mouth to paint a picture of her perfect body in his mind. He flicked a tongue over the small notch at the base of her neck. He moved back up again retracing his course feeling her shudder in delight of his mouth's caress.

Max slipped her hands below the waistband of his sweats feeling the taught smooth skin of his posterior. She slowly pulled them back running them up from the small of his back to his shoulders, enjoying the feel of his muscles under her fingers. She then moved them over his chest slowly caressing them and moving back down to his pants, slowly untying the string that held them to his slender waist. As a tease she loosened them and them moved back up his chest. Logan sighed disappointed at her abrupt departure from the area. She smiled again coyly then pulled him down into another kiss, as her hands moved again this time directly to pull the pants he was wearing down. Logan shifted slightly to assist her in the removal of the garment but did not stop his own machinations of desire, running knowing hands to the places that made Max feel the best. 

Slowly Logan sat up, Max followed but stood and slowly removed her own pants tossing them to one side as she knelt down in front of her husband. She moved forward leaning in to kiss him again as she shifted onto him, wrapping her long legs around his waist. She began to move on top of him as his hands moved to her butt to support her. Logan closed his eyes as she leaned back enjoying the sensation. After a few moments he lay her back down taking over, kissing her as he moved. She rose to greet him stroke after stroke feeling her own body coming to climax. She glanced up at Logan seeing by the look on his face that he was near also. Her hands still moved over his chest, over his buttocks, down his thighs and then back up again. It was not long before he had spent himself, but Max insisted he keep moving, to bring her to her own which was near. He was panting hard, nearly to a point where he was going to pass out from over-stimulation when she cried out in ecstasy. That was Logan's cue, as he collapsed on top of her breathing hard and unable to move. Max lay still, running one hand through his hair as the other moved in slow circles on his muscular back.

After a few moments intertwined in each other's embrace Logan pushed up looking down at her lovingly. She smiled up at him and pushed herself up to kiss him again.


	9. Interlude Interupted

Chapter Eight: Interlude Interrupted

Logan and Max went through the day just happy to be in each other's company. Logan had retired for a while to his study to tie up some loose ends with the Informant Net and his latest research project. He was loath to take any time away from Max, wanting nothing more than to spend every waking moment getting reacquainted with his love. Unfortunately duty called and he was still on alert when the problems around the city broke surface. This particular bit of business had already been put off too long with his absence in getting Max back. 

He paused a moment to watch and listen as Max passed by the study humming tunelessly to herself. He broke out into a smile as he was whisked back to the time before his life fell apart, to the calm before the storm that had torn them from each other. To hear her again in his life, he felt that pang again, feeling that this was somehow a dream, one that he was about to wake from. He would find himself sitting up in his king-sized bed alone again, utterly and devastatingly alone. He was not sure that he could handle that. It was enough to keep him unconsciously tense even when he thought that he was relaxed.

He shook himself out and turned back to his work, telling himself that this was real, Max was really here, in his life. He continued for nearly an hour until he felt Max come in behind him and wrap her slim arms around his neck. He smiled as she did and leaned back from his computer to look into her face.

"Hey," He said catching her much more relaxed expression. He felt another part of his mind relaxed to see her starting to settle into their new and shared reality.

"Hey yourself. You going to be done soon?" She asked curiously.

Logan drew a deep breath sighing heavily at the reminder of his burgeoning workload, "I'm almost done," he reassured her, "Just one more reply to my source and I'll be caught up."

"Good 'cause Lunch is ready," she said in a tone that said that she was proud of her accomplishment that she had something of a surprise for him.

Logan looked at her, again this time with an eyebrow raised in surprise, "Really?" He said shutting down his computer, pushing back from the desk and rising to face her.

She straightened and looked at him hand on her hip, "REALLY," she answered sounding hurt at his incredulous tone.

Logan threw an arm around her shoulder as they moved toward the kitchen, "You are a constant surprise, Max."

"Don't sound so shocked. I did learn a thing or two about cooking," She threw a hip into his smiling sarcastically, "I had a good teacher."

"Really? And who would that be?" Logan asked feigning ignorance.

"Cute!"

Logan stopped short as he came into the dining room, shocked by what he saw. Laid out before him was a culinary miracle that rivaled several of his best. The shades had been drawn giving the room a half-lit aura of intimacy. At the center of the table was a bouquet of flowers from several different varieties that grew wild in the run down nooks and crannies of the city. The arrangement gave off a mellow sweet smell that was as relaxing as the sight of it was. Either side of the bouquet were long white lit candles that provided little more light that the subdued light from outside. 

Arranged in a semi circle around the near side was what amounted to a picnic lunch arranged on small self serve dishes. The food was what constituted the miracle. There were summer sausages cut in neat even slices, three kinds of cheese; cheddar, jack and swiss, and crackers in various flavors that he had not seen in at least six years. There were plates of fruit, red and green grapes, sliced apples with a small side helping of peanut butter, and a mixed fruit salad to include of all things banana's. In a basket in front of the flower arrangement was a basket of fresh loaves of bread next to which was a tub of butter, which was as hard to find as hens teeth in this day.

Side by side were two white porcelain plates, ones he recognized as being an heirloom from his great aunt, on the table each with a matching glass of sparkling champagne the bottle set perfectly centered between them.

Logan looked down at Max and smiled warmly, she smiled a shining smile that he seldom saw out of her ever. She had been busy, had he really been occupied that long that she was able to go out and get this together?

"How did you get all this?" he inquired curious and awed by the feat, even as he was moving toward the veritable feast before him. He wondered silently just how much this had cost.

"Just lucky, I guess," She said demurely, shrugging in a way that told him that she was keeping a secret. 

"Well… it looks wonderful," he said moving her chair out as an invitation to join him.

Max smiled again as she moved sinuously to join him. They ate at leisure, enjoying the tastes and smells and each other. There was electricity in the air that hinted at another romantic interlude later in the evening. They stole glances at each other demurely answering each others unspoken promise of more intimate moments to follow later in the evening.

Logan ate until he felt as if he was about to pop, and Max matched him bite for bite. Her appetite had certainly grown during their separation, it seemed because he could hardly get her to finish a plate of food before she had been taken. Some of that was due to her pregnancy, but most of it had just been Max. Slowly he pushed back from the table unable to even think of taking another bite of the delicious summer sausage that Max had been able to find, "That was wonderful, Max. Though you can hardly call it cooking," He teased as she smiled broadly, "Its more serving I think."

"Semantics," Max said. She shifted in her chair and leaned back, she slowly crossed her arms over her waist and she just sat there looking at Logan. Logan leaned on the arm of the chair he was seated in doing the same. They remained that was for long moments some silent electric cord keeping either of them from looking away, both thinking of nothing else but the person seated across from the other.

Logan blinked first saying, "Do you remember the night I proposed to you?"

Max burst out in laughter then, "How could I forget?" She asked rhetorically, "You sent me on a 'fact finding mission', had me following some 'madman's' clues across most of Seattle and into Tacoma. What was it you had said? Oh yeah, 'There's a young woman's future hanging in the balance, it is of utmost importance that you figure out what this mongrel wants.'" Max laughed again, "The final clue led me to a run down cannery in the worst section of town. I was so expecting to be ambushed at any minute. I came to the door that the clue had alluded to and opened it to find a small room draped in white lace, lit with candles and filled with white roses. There was a computer screen in the middle of it with the words 'touch me' flashing on the screen," Max paused smiling, "I should have realized there was something up, it was an Eye's Only contact computer, without the camera."

"The camera was there," Logan offered smiling slyly, "Hidden so that I could get your honest reaction."

"Really? Should have known," Max said, "The screen then instructed me to open the drawer and press 'continue'. In the drawer was the ring… I remember what the note said when I pressed continue, 'To he one true and honest thing to happen in my life, and the one person I can no longer live without. I would be honored if you would consider becoming Mrs. Max Guevera-Cale.'" Logan flushed red at the comment, "It said at the bottom, 'yes' and 'no'. I should have said 'No' for jerking me around like that," Max added, "You mongrel. You even had sounded concerned and self-righteous about it. You had me convinced that this was a real kidnapping… I didn't know whether to be happy or mad as hell about the deception."

Logan looked down, "As I remember it, you ended up running for you own life somewhere in there. You will never realize how anguished I was to realize that I had put you in the situation that the South African's would try to get you that night. I really have put you in harms way a lot over the years… I regret that."

Max just shrugged, "I've put myself in a lot more than you ever have… and I've done my own share of putting you in the line of fire. Starting just after we first met, you'd have never been crippled if it weren't for me."

Logan looked away still pained by the memory. He looked back at her, "Don't ever think that I blame you for that. Think about it, if you and I had never met, I would still have been in harms way. I would have tried to get Lauren and her daughter into protection even if we had never met, I would still have been crippled, and I would most likely still be that way. As much as I have lost, I have gained so much more knowing and loving you."

Max smiled again and reached over to get her glass of champagne, "Here's to our roller coaster of a life, to being back together, and to the hope that we are never separated again."

"Here, here," Logan agreed lifting his own glass. They set their glasses down simultaneously and leaned over to kiss each other. It started out as a small kiss but quickly deepened as their wants arose again.

Logan broke contact suddenly looking his eyes darting away from her toward the hallway looking concerned, "Damn it," he muttered rising.

"What's wrong?" Max asked suddenly confused rising to follow Logan as he stalked toward the door. Just as he reached for the knob the doorbell rang. Max froze in the hallway looking at Logan oddly, it was the first real show she had witnessed of Logan's radar ability. She was more than a little startled by it.

Logan glanced over at Max smiling a small smile, then he turned to the door and opened it, "Bling," He said in a sarcastic tone, "You're timing is impeccable."

"Bling?!" Max said from behind Logan, "Oh my God!"

Logan stepped aside and allowed Bling to step inside, he was smiling broadly as Max rushed into his open arms, "Welcome home Maxy," he said in a heartfelt tone, "We all missed you deeply."

Max leaned back, "Thanks."

Bling had faded to the background after Logan and Max had gotten married, just appearing on occasion to give a hand as was needed with the Network. He had pretty much left them to live their lives. The three of them sat back down again as she tried to catch up on what he had been doing.

"I didn't know about your 'death' until I was privy to the Eye's Only broadcast that Logan had put out," Bling said, "I came as soon as I knew, knowing that Logan was going to have a hard time of it. By then Logan had disappeared. It did not endow me with much confidence concerning his previous 'bouts with depression, and for a while I thought I had lost him too, especially when I saw the condition of his place, the bullets strewn about and the blood on the sheets.

"I was in process of gathering his things together and straightening up the place thinking that I was going to end up having to sell it as part of his estate. He shows up just out of the blue, on crutches, battered and bruised looking like he had survived a war. Tinga was with him helping him get himself back into the apartment. I was unsure whether I was more concerned or relieved to see him alive in that condition. I dropped everything else for a while, just trying to make sure that he was going to be able to survive the devastation of your loss.

"It took him a long time to start functioning again. There was a while there where he wouldn't even leave the study, just staring at the sculpture in there, shelled up. He would not tell me what had happened… not about the night you were taken, not what had taken place in the month that he was gone, nor why Tinga had returned with him. She was no help telling me that he would have to tell me himself." 

Max looked over at Logan who was staring at the floor cleaning a nail with another nail. He seemed to feel her eyes on him for he looked up into her questioning eyes. He cleared his throat, "I told you I wasn't myself."

"Even after he started acting nearly like himself I hung around, just to be sure that he had some kind of support system in place."

Logan rolled his eyes embarrassed by the sound of that statement like he had been a little kid in need of his mommy. Unfortunately Bling was absolutely on the money about his emotional state, at that time. He had been very glad to have him available when things began overwhelming him, as had happened often in that first year after Max was gone. Logan sighed as Bling finished baring Logan's old wounds again, "So Bling what brings you here today?" kind of annoyed at Max and his interrupted interlude.

"Well, you did ask me to get some things for the lunch with the Logan Cale Brigade tomorrow for Max's welcome home."

Logan looked sharply at his watch, "That is tomorrow isn't it," he said sheepishly as he looked at Max, trying to explain, "I invited everyone back tomorrow for a welcome home for you… and to thank them each for their help and support in your rescue."

Max nodded slowly, "OH… Kay."

"I can cancel it if you're not up to it, Max, really," Logan said concerned that she was about to get mad.

Max shook herself out, "No," She said, "No… it's a good idea actually. I want to thank them myself."

Logan sighed again, relieved, sure that she was going to disapprove, "Well, then, let me help you get the stuff in," Logan said and Bling nodded and rose to his own feet. There was all the time in the world, he told himself, their interlude would still happen it was just going to be delayed. 


	10. Sparks

Chapter Nine: Sparks

Max for all her want to live up to her words could not bring herself to come out of the bedroom and join the small party of friends out on the balcony. She looked over her outfit yet again, not happy with her appearance. The red velvet shirt and black pants she had selected seemed out of place, they didn't fit right there was just something wrong. The fading bruises on her face stood out glaringly in her own mind despite the makeup that had faded it to near nonexistence. She had put her length of hair into a loose bun allowing some of the ends to come free in wispy strands. That didn't look right either and she angrily tore the band out of her hair. She ran a brush back through it to take care of the tangles she had created with that act only to have it frizz on her. She quickly wet it again, scrunching it and then shaking her head to get it to lie like she wanted it to. She looked at it again and sighed, it was one of those bad hair days.

She frowned knowing that the outfit was fine, as was her appearance, she was just nervous. She laughed shortly, her, the epitome of confidence was worried about what they would say about her. That was absolutely hilarious. She tugged at her shirt again shifting her shoulders drawing a deep breath and letting it out slowly.

She jumped as a light touch lay on her shoulder, she focused seeing Logan looking at her reflection in the mirror, "Are you ready?"

"Mentally or physically?" She said shortly, "Maybe this wasn't such a good idea," She groused, "I feel suddenly like a train wreck."

Logan leaned down and kissed her neck, "You look beautiful."

"You're just a bit biased my love," She chastised him.

"What's your point?"

She smiled sincerely this time, "Well then what are we waiting for?" she asked bolstering her courage.

Max stepped out onto the balcony Logan close by her side in support. She stopped seeing all in attendance stop what they were doing to look her way. She felt herself starting to retreat, only stopped by Logan's reassuring touch on her arm. She looked up to see the love and encouragement in his eyes. She nodded at him breathing deeply again and making herself move forward. Bling was here and she looked his way and smiled, another pillar of support there

Zach approached her first and she found herself shocked at his appearance. His hair had browned quite a bit and was much shorter than it had been the last time that she had seen him. He still had left a length in the back to hide the barcode he had finally gotten tired of trying to get removed. It made his face seem larger and squarer. Not that it was a bad look on him it was just something she was not used to seeing from him. He was dressed in his norm, a pair of blue jeans, a plain one pocket T-shirt and his black leather coat. He looked weary and his face was thinner, but she still saw his true feelings for her in his brilliant blue eyes. He had never gotten over his crush on her, even after all these years. 

Max practically fell into his arms gladly taking his loving hug, "Little sister," He breathed, then he backed away, "Welcome back."

"Thanks big bro'" She said smiling, "Thanks for coming for me."

"How could I do anything but," Zach countered.

Tinga stood just behind Zach smiling warmly, in contrast to Zach she looked exactly the same as she had the last Max had seen her. Her knee length hair was gathered back into a ponytail her dark slanted eyes shining brightly in her happiness to see Max again. She wore a tan leather coat over a skintight jumpsuit in black accented with a silver concho belt dangling at an angle from her waist. Her hands were covered as they almost always were with black leather gloves. She moved up when she thought that Zach had monopolized Max's time for long enough. The two women hugged each other fiercely both with tears in their eyes.

"Tinga," Max said quietly, "It has been so long!"

They moved away from each other a little bit, "Too long little sister," Tinga answered with a tight smile.

"How have you been?" Max asked.

"Hanging in there, my happy ending hasn't happened yet," She said looking a bit guilty for airing her own problems at a party that was supposed to be about good news, "I still haven't caught up to my husband or son yet."

"We'll find them," Max said strongly, "They're out there and we will help you find them I promise."

"Thanks Max," Tinga said gratefully.

A young girl came up next to Zach then. She was Asian in descent with a pretty round face and straw straight black hair. She was adorned with a line of earrings in her left ear that was attached by several chains to two nose rings. Her eyes were green, brilliant as emeralds, with slightly oblong pupils. She noticed immediately the barcode ill hidden by the henna tattoo she had attempted to cover it with, she was Manticore it was evident, this must be the young girl that Logan had told her of. She was dressed in one of the latest fashions it was a tight rib knit sweater in dark maroon with flared cuffs that hid her slim petite hands. From wrist to elbow she wore a pair of drawn silver coils and interesting counterpoint to the shirt. She was wearing a pair of dark gray skin tight pants that also flared as they hit the calf looking like she had taken the inspiration from a Clydesdale horse. Peeking from below the flares were a pair of high-heeled black boots that added to her diminutive height.

She was practically bouncing on the balls of her feet in excitement, she was grinning ear to ear as if she was about to meet the movie star she had always dreamed about. 

"Max," Logan started, "This is Tima."

"Pleased to meet you Tima," Max said warmly, "Trying to fleece my husband I hear," the girl looked away a moment blushing and that is when Max realized just how young the girl really was. She smiled then looking back at Logan, "seems to be a great way to meet someone, I highly recommend it," Max joked.

Tima looked up smiling this time in thanks, "It has been a pleasure having been Logan's friend these past few months," Max looked to Logan who was red in embarrassment, then back to the girl. Speaking of crushes, "He has taught me a lot. I owe him my life, y'know."

"So I hear," Max said unable to keep the laugh out of her voice, "I want to thank you for your part in getting me out of Manticore. You don't know how much that means to me," Max added.

"I know how much it meant to Logan, so I think I understand."

"I also want to thank you for getting Logan off his lazy butt and getting him to practice his skill. You accomplished something I never was able to," She jumped as she received a sharp pinch in the side for the sarcasm. She looked up into her lover's eyes, "What? Truth hurts don' it?"

Max felt herself relaxing as they all began to smile, then they broke out into laughter at Logan's expense, "Next time I'll just leave you there," Logan threatened jokingly, then smiled himself. He leaned over and kissed her forehead.

Max looked up from the group almost feeling the other set of eyes on her. She looked past Tima to the young man she recognized from a nightmare. She unthreaded her arm from Logan's and locked on target moved toward the lone figure standing uncomfortably some distance from the rest of the group.

Logan watched her go at first happy that she was going to approach Kito to thank him when he would not come near, still the recluse. Luckily she was the forward one. Logan began to frown when his danger sense went off however, "Excuse me," He said distantly as he tailed Max trying to stop what was about to happen, the feeling intensifying quickly and he was unable to catch up in time.

Max didn't even slow down as she approached Kito, "You son of a bitch!" she growled as she lashed out with a fist. Kito was caught off guard and the fist connected solidly sending him crashing to the ground. Logan caught up just as she went back at him trying to pull her off before she hurt him further.

"What are you doing?" Logan asked incredulously holding her by both arms and trying to get her to focus on his face.

"You left me, you bastard!" She yelled at Kito, "How dare you get my hopes up like that and leave me hanging!" even as she tried to free herself of Logan's strong grip, finally she looked up at him when she was unsuccessful at getting free, "He deserted me, Logan! He promised that he would get me out and never… NEVER came back for me!"

"I barely escaped from there with my life!" Kito said in his defense, "I couldn't come back… not by myself. They had it too heavily guarded. Leaving for help was the only way."

"Bullshit!" Max spit, "You were in with Lydecker to add another layer to my torture!"

"No!" Kito denied, "You don't understand I threw everything I was, everything that was my life away that night when I got caught with you. That was my _life_, Max, and I threw it away, to get help to get you out." He said in an anguished tone.

"You never came back!" Max repeated.

"He did!" Logan interrupted, "Max," She still struggled, "MAX!" He asserted finally getting her attention back, "He came to the city and found Tima. He _told_ Tima what you had said, she made the connection between his story about you and what it would mean to me. She came to me and relayed the story. That was the only way I found out you were still alive… it was the only reason I got the team together to get you out. Without his information you would still be there! Only because he got out!"

"He left me," She repeated in a small hurt voice.

"He didn't do it by choice," Logan asserted.

She looked up into Logan's eyes looking as if he had betrayed her now, tearing her arms from his grip and rushing into the apartment. Logan swallowed hard feeling she had torn his heart out with that look. Then slowly turned back to Kito, "Kito, I'm sorry."

"No… it's OK," he stopped Logan, "I understand where she's coming from. I made her a promise and I didn't keep it, in her eyes. She doesn't remember my being there when we rescued her," He nodded not looking at Logan as if he was trying to convince himself of Max's logic, "I think… I had better go."

Logan's lips thinned, wanting to convince him to stay, but knowing at the moment that it was better if he did leave. He was sure Max would get over this eventually, but now was not the time to try and convince her that Kito was not the enemy.

"Maybe we all should go," Tinga offered, to ease the awkwardness if Logan had to ask them for a moment, "We can do this again another time."

"It might be best," Logan said quietly, "Again, I'm sorry."


	11. Interlude Resumed

Chapter Ten: Interlude Resumed

Logan showed his guests to the door, quietly shutting it and then heading back for the bedroom where Max had isolated herself.

"You want to talk about it?"

Max just shook her head in the negative. Logan drew a deep breath, two steps forward three steps back, "He really did come back for you," Logan said not looking at her. Max shot him an angry look that he caught in the periphery of his vision, "It was not very fair of you to react like that… I did invite him here."

"Shows you have no judge of character," Max said sharply.

Logan found himself having to take another deep breath to keep from rising to that bait. And again to keep from blasting her for her attitude, "He led us step by step through the complex helping us take on the contingent of soldiers that was stationed there, laying in wait to stop us. He fought and killed his own brother to get us to the cell where they were holding you. The man had labeled Kito a traitor. And now he finds himself a stranger in a strange land, without a purpose in life, no direction and no recourse to go back to what he considers home," Logan explained, "All for his choice to try and help you."

"You really believe that don't you?" Max said softly, "Your good nature is blinding you Logan, I would not be surprised if he was a plant to betray us all to Lydecker."

"Do you remember what I told you about my ability to sense the level of danger different people pose," Logan said, Max nodded, "Do you trust me?"

She looked at him sharply, "Of course."

"Then believe me when I say that he poses us no threat."

"Why do you believe that?"

"Because my sense of impending danger has never gone off around him," Logan sighed. He then pointed something else out, "Kito could easily have betrayed all of us in that complex. He could have gotten us lost in the bowels of the building so deep we would never have found our way out," He saw her consider that, stubbornly trying to hold on to her own conviction that Kito had betrayed her and would betray them all. He also saw that the notion was losing ground to the sense Logan was making. Logan slowly moved over and sat next to Max, "Did I tell you that Kito is one of the Manticore kids I fought four years ago in Yreka?"

"What?" she said looking back at him.

"Oh I don't think he realizes it, I was already in pretty rough shape when I entered Lydecker's tent with a bent to put double ought buck in his back. Kito was one of the two kids who defended Lydecker that night. He was thirteen at the time, maybe fourteen. He and the redheaded girl pretty well kicked my ass. It's taken me a bit to figure it out, surprises me actually, that I had any clarity at all during the fight, but I do remember his face. 

"It was part of the subconscious reason I refused to trust him when he told me he had found you. I didn't even know why I had mistrusted him until about halfway through the mission." Logan said thoughtfully, "I wonder what he would do if he knew that." They both went silent for long moments.

"Did you ever have a time when you got your hopes up after dismal news, only to have that hope dashed just when you were beginning to believe it?" Max said breaking the silence finally, "That is what it felt like the night he walked through that door throwing around promises of freedom. He further bolstered that when he started breaking the locks that held me. I wanted to believe that he would be my salvation and then he was whisked away taking my hope with him. It was all so convenient… like it had been staged." Max said in a trembling voice, "I honestly thought Lydecker had set that up to break my will."

"Would the night you were taken count?" Logan asked looking sidelong at her. He took a deep breath then continued, "I had finally convinced myself that we were free and clear that we were going to get left alone. We had seen neither hide nor hair of a Manticore operative in over a year. I allowed myself to believe that we would be able to start our family in peace…that it would all work out after all. I believed in it, only to have those dreams dashed when we found ourselves surrounded. I woke up after the nightmare of watching them shoot you to find that you and the hopes for my future were gone, for what I thought was forever."

He leaned back supporting himself on her back, sighing heavily, "I still don't want to let myself believe that we are truly back together for fear of waking to find that this is all a dream. I have become gun shy about happiness."

"Me too," Max said shakily, "All those years I spent there dreaming that I was home with you… with the baby," He heard the tremor in her voice get worse as the tears threatened, "Do you realize that she would have been three and a half now?" She added morosely, and a single sob escaped her lips. Logan swallowed as a sharp pain lanced through him at the thought of their lost child. Max was silent for long moments trying to recuperate her composure, "I would dream that I was warm and safe with the people that I loved and that loved me. I convinced myself so many times that it was true only to wake up in that claustrophobic, depressing room, strangling in my restraints, chilled to the bone. I don't want to wake up from the dream again."

Max reached back searching with blind fingers for Logan's hand, and in finding it laced her fingers through his squeezing it tightly, desperately. Logan returned the gesture trying to give her comfort knowing the feeling exactly, hearing his own fears echoed in her words.

They simultaneously turned toward each other, never losing that physical contact. Logan reached up with his free hand running the back of it down her tear-moistened cheeks. It continued to move until he was lightly cradling her neck staring earnestly into her reddened eyes, "This is not a dream, Max," Logan asserted quietly, "This is as real as our life gets."

"How can you be so sure?"

"I can't, but that is what I believe, and I will continue to believe that until proven otherwise."

Her mouth thinned and then she nodded, she looked back into his eyes again and found herself gravitating toward him. He leaned down and met her halfway, kissing her in a tender bittersweet way that told her that he understood. Max released her death-grip on his fingers slowly moving up his arm and shoulder running her fingers through his unruly hair. Logan's hand, now free, moved to her thigh, caressing it lightly as their kiss became desperately passionate. They broke off again simultaneously both staring into each other's eyes. Logan reached up and cradled her beautiful face in his large hands, smiling wanly. He leaned in again kissing her forehead as his hands traced lightly down the back of her velvet shirt. They moved back up again and then down her arms drawing a flush of Goosebumps on her skin. 

Max was a motionless eyes intent on him, she closed them as he leaned in to nuzzle her neck, moving himself closer to her body. His hands moved again finding the waistline of her shirt and running a warm hand against her flesh up to her breast. He ran his hand lightly tentatively over it drawing another involuntary shiver out of her. He leaned back again still maintaining his eye contact with her as his other hand moved under her shirt, slowly raising the soft material. She obliged him raising her arms above her head allowing him to remove it. She shook her hair out as it came free of the garment looking at him yet again. His eyes finally moved elsewhere as his hands slowly moved over her brazier-covered breasts, moving around to encircle her. He kissed her again as he worked to release the clasps holding it to her. 

Max was in motion now sliding fingers down from his neck and over his back down to his waist and up his chest. She leisurely unbuttoned the silk shirt he had worn tonight as she felt him finally free her from the confines of her lingerie. Logan slowly moved his hands up guiding the satin straps off of her shoulders, and again she assisted by dropping her arms and allowing it to fall to the sheets under her. She had finished her task of removing his shirt and ran her hands between the material and Logan's chest moving them up over his shoulders and down his arms, and she tossed it aside as it came free.

When Max had freed Logan's arms he lightly ran his hands back up her arms and back down to caress her soft skin. He now kissed one cheek and then her chin and back into the crook of her neck. 

Max ran her hands back over his muscular body wandering down into his pants pushing his waistband lower. She lingered there listening to his breath come faster at such stimulation. 

One hand still moving over Max's body, Logan moved his other hand to the small of her back. With gentle pressure he laid her down on the covers of her bed maintaining the contact of their kiss. Slowly Logan moved lower shifting his body momentarily out of her reach as his mouth traced hot and cold trails down her topless body. His hands then moved to her waist again this time slowly undoing the button down fly of her black pants. As each came loose he kissed another part of her body, top button he kissed her forehead lightly, watching her smile in delight. The second he kissed her full lips passionately, his tongue exploring a bit and met by her own eager and exploring tongue. The third button his mouth moved lower kissing her in the crook of her neck. The last button came undone as Logan kissed her just above the bellybutton drawing an expectant moan out of her. Max shivered in anticipation as Logan's knowing hands moved further down. In what seemed like an agonizingly slow act, Logan used both his hands to pull the last garments from her warm body, running slightly parted lips down her right thigh. Logan stepped off the bed as he pulled the tight pants free exposing her dark skinned body to his sight. For a moment he stood there looking at the sight of her still amazed how good she looked even after her years in captivity. He then stood there, Max intently watching as he took his own pants off, seeing her smile at the sight of what was rightfully hers.

Not allowing the momentum he built up to fade he moved back onto the bed running a hand up her other thigh as he leaned back down and kissed her in opposite order up her body. Logan lingered when he reached her lips kissing and exploring the taste of her. His hands continued to move knowingly to the places that she liked to be touched, and he did it both for his and her pleasure. 

Max had resumed her own machinations on Logan's body caressing him until he was also shivering in anticipation and pleasure. With hands on his buttocks she pulled him closer guiding him to her desire, and she gasped at the wonderful sensation it invoked in her. She opened her eyes again seeing him looking down at her with loving understanding eyes, smiling warmly down upon her. That one look erased all the frustration all of the worry in her own soul. 

She snaked an arm around his neck and pulled him insistently down into a kiss as she began to move under him legs wrapped around his hips, moving to a rhythm that only she could hear. He slowly began with his own motion matching her tempo as she rose each time to greet him. Gradually the tempo increased moving them together faster and faster, until Logan was near his peak, when Max pushed him off of her.

Logan looked at her indignantly a moment for spoiling the mood. But she disarmed his protest as she presented him with another angle. She looked back over her shoulder smiling slyly. Logan smiled broadly himself as he approached her again. He slowly leaned over her kissing her between the shoulder blades, his hands moving of their own accord to please the dark skinned beauty he was lucky enough to call his wife. Logan straightened and began to move again, and again Max matched his motion doubling the sensation that they were experiencing. Logan was nearing his peak very quickly with the pleasant surprise she had provided for him, but he held off as she began to show her own signs. It fueled Logan's own desire and made the sensation almost more than he could bear. He felt Max tense under him and her body start to quiver as she peaked, and Logan was unable to hold out any longer, trying desperately to keep from collapsing from the intensity of the feeling.

When the feeling subsided a bit he leaned back over wrapping both arms around Max in a loving and protective embrace. Pulling her up to a kneeling position her hot and sweat covered body pressed against his he kissed her in the crook of the neck then on the neck itself and then above her ear. He then whispered raggedly, "If this is a dream, this is one hell of a goodbye."


	12. Reflash

I want to thank everyone for the outstanding response to this repost! I really appreciate all of the support everyone has given me, both on the board and via email. You guys are the best!

Now I should get off my butt and work on B&P!

Darwin

Epilogue: Reflash

SIX MONTHS LATER:

Max moved through the apartment slowly, contemplating the last few months she had been back in society, and with Logan. She sighed, thinking about how they had been through a few rough spots, as would be expected with a long separation. There were times when her guilt or his would surface again, and they found themselves fighting. The specters of both their pasts would rise up and make their current situation miserable. Once or twice they had both considered taking time out from each other, unsure that the problems they were experiencing could be worked out. They could never stay away from each other long, the record being three days, they would get back together and work even harder to solve their problems.

The last month and a half had actually been smooth and they had finally settled into a comfortable routine. They had actually allowed themselves to believe that the happiness they were experiencing was in fact real.

They had added to their usual mundane routine a twice-daily regime of sparring, which seemed to clear them both of any frustrations of the day. Max and Logan both enjoyed the sessions, which more often than not led to passionate lovemaking right there on the sparring mat. Max had regained a lot of her muscle tone and weight, and her ability was about back up to where it had been prior to her internment. Logan had shown himself to be a more than worthy opponent, his skill nearly as good as hers had been when she had been in peak condition. She also was proud of the fact that she never had to worry about him taking it "easy" on her, he fought as if he was fighting for his life, and she matched him in his fervor.

Many days there was one or another of the Logan Cale Brigade over to visit, including Kito. Max had apologized to him for her reaction to him. Logan had been right, as he often was about people. Kito could very easily have betrayed Logan, Zach, Tinga, and Tima while they had been searching for her. He could have turned them over to Lydecker easily saving his reputation and probably putting him back in his bosses good graces. But he hadn't, he had led them to her and even fought his own brethren to do so. 

Max's brow furrowed at the thought of the young Manticore soldier, she was worried about him. He did not seem to be able to adjust to living on the outside and she wondered if he was past a point where he could readjust to accept the new and freer lifestyle of being on the outside. Anytime that she had seen him he seemed depressed and it was affecting him in other ways as well. Logan had set him up with two jobs well suited for his talents only to have Kito lose them due to "Attitude Problems". Kito was staying with Tima in her apartment near the tower where they lived. Because without a job he could not get a place of his own, and Max wondered if he was going to make it.

Last she had heard Tima and Zach were actually dating, though Max was pretty certain that sooner or later Tima would get tired of Zach's "good little soldier" attitude and move on to a nice normal guy. Eh it remained to be seen. At least she had gotten over her infatuation with Logan, which had begun to get annoying. Max could see where it came from, Logan was the first one to help her out, for no other reason than he was a nice guy. She had never experienced that kind of selfless giving in her life and had fell in love with the idea of it. She never said as much and Logan wouldn't admit to knowing of her adoration. But she knew that it was there.

Max stopped in the doorway and watched Logan as he sat in front of his computer. He was talking via IM to two contacts at the same time he was reading compressed files that whizzed by at an incredible speed, a speed that would have allowed no normal human being to understand what they were seeing. Logan took it in comprehending all of it, but he was no longer a normal human being, he was altered by his mutated DNA giving him extraordinary abilities. And not just enhanced speed or strength that she had expected and seen coming out in him but enhanced mental capabilities as well. They were put to good use during his interviews with prospective contacts, his research and his ability to do at least five separate tasks at the once in less time than it took most to do one. He had gotten too fast for his "state of the art" system in less than six months after the appearance of his initial abilities. He turned the preternatural Manticore abilities to different uses than Max had or any Manticore she had ever known, being that he was not inherently a fighter.

That all still amazed Max, she remembered now about how he would get frustrated at the "snails pace" of his old computer. But she had never correlated it with his emerging abilities… until now. She watched him for a while longer, wondering when would be a good time to interrupt him with her news. He seemed engrossed in what he was doing, and she had seen him this submerged before, it usually took him awhile if he was interrupted to redirect his concentration to what was being said. She had sworn that she could see the information flowing across his pupils one time when she had interrupted him midstream. So she waited a while longer until he looked as if he was surfacing from the information flow.

"What is it?" He said suddenly, sensing her presence there, turning to face her. He smiled at her disconcerted look. That still drove her absolutely nuts that he could tell exactly when she was there or exactly her route through the place. It was impossible to sneak up on him. He stretched a long time before standing up and walking over to her. He laid light hands on her arms and kissed her lovingly, "You look like you got something on your mind," He said softly.

She smiled, "You becoming psychic too?" She teased him, then turned away and walked into the kitchen seating herself at one of the barstools. 

He followed her looking curious, "So do I get to know what's going on inside that lovely head of yours or do I get to guess?"

"Oh I don't think that you could guess this one," Max said softly.

"What? You're pregnant?" Logan said jokingly.

"Are you sure you're not becoming a psychic?" She said sarcastically squinting at him as she laid her hand on her hip.

Logan's eyes widened, "You mean… You're really…." 

"Whoa… the great Logan Cale at a loss for words," she chided him, "I am impressed…. Yes, Sam confirmed it today."

Before she knew what had happened he was embracing her and kissing her forehead, "Max that's wonderful!" He said enthusiastically looking down into her eyes happy and very much in love, "How far along?" He asked.

"About six to eight weeks," She said sounding happy and uncertain at the same time. Suddenly she was trembling.

"Max… what's wrong?"

She looked into his face with watery eyes, "I'm scared, Logan. What if I don't carry it to term… what if I lose it… just like the others?"

"You'll be fine Max," Logan reassured her squashing down hard on his own doubts about the ability of his wife to give birth to this child. Right behind that was the thought of his own age and his ability to be there when his child was growing up in this rough and tumble world, "Everything will be alright, you'll see," he said sounding strong even if he didn't necessarily feel that way.

Logan's head came up and his gaze moved the direction of the front door, "Kito's here," Logan said softly, releasing Max and moving toward the door. Max followed close behind him as he reached the door. He was about to open it when he said, "Jesus, no," backing away quickly, "Max! Get down!" He yelled pushing her into the side hall as he hit what she recognized as the panic button on his computer and grabbed the nine millimeter he still kept in arms reach at all time just as the door exploded inward.

Max watched helplessly as Logan was knocked back ten feet by the concussion of the blast. Before the smoke had even cleared Logan was firing into it from his back. She heard someone behind the smokescreen grunt and go down. As the smoke thinned six armed soldiers filed into the apartment training guns on Logan. He raised his hands and let the pistol fall. Still in a state of mental shock Max watched as if in slow motion as the beaten and bloody form of Kito was ushered into the hall. His hands were shackled behind him held at what looked to be a painful angle. His feet did not seem to stay under him dragging and stumbling as he was compelled to move forward. His captor walked in with all the air and authority of someone who knew they had won. She was flanked by two younger Manticore soldiers barcodes standing out like beacons on their foreheads. The one on the left was a short stout black girl with only a skullcap of hair and her barcode stood out like a negative before exposure stark white against her dark skin. The one to the right of the leader was a tall red headed burly looking young man. Each of the younger ones signaled the men nearest them whom moved off to search the rest of the apartment. Two of the soldiers trained guns on Logan and ordered him to lay flat on his stomach as one of them roughly put manacles on his wrists. They then forced him up onto his knees where they left him guns trained on his temples. 

The woman in the lead dropped Kito on the ground, he was unable to catch himself and he landed heavily on his face. There he remained unmoving and Max noticed that he was barely breathing, beaten within an inch of his life. One arm looked dislocated or broken, as did his nose. His face was barely recognizable, covered in bruises and his left brow lip and right ear were split from repeated hits with something blunt.

The woman took one step forward straddling Kito's broken form as she moved her surly gaze about the visible portion of the apartment. 

"Orders ma'am?" The short black woman asked calmly as the remaining soldier returned, adding their firepower to ensure that Logan and Max did not move. The woman's eyes stopped when she encountered Max crouched where she was stunned to be seeing the face again after all these years. She began to wonder why she had allowed Manticore to take her back even if she had been dying.

"Bryn," Max breathed, she was waking up from her dream again…. Into a nightmare.

"Kill her, Him…Lydecker wants him alive," She said evenly.

"NO!" Max screamed.

"No!" Max burst, starting awake, breathing heavy and drenched in sweat. The room was dark and silent, there was no smoke, no soldiers looming over her, no broken body of Kito lying before her. Bryn was not standing in her hallway waiting to take Logan away from her, giving him over into slavery. The grip of it was still strong in her head though, "God," She whispered finding herself crying.

"M…Max?" She heard Logan say sleepily beside her, "Is everything OK?" Slowly he sat up as well hearing her crying and wrapped an arm around her, "Max?" he asked again.

"A nightmare," she muttered through her tears, "It was just a nightmare." She said quietly, somehow she wasn't so sure.

The End? 


End file.
